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Marine Turtle Newsletter 161:30, © 2020

Marine Turtle Newsletter-Online

Albino Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) Hatchlings Documented at Cayo Largo (Canarreos Archipelago), Cuba

Gonzalo Nodarse1, Leonardo Valido1 & Félix Moncada2
1Marina Marlin, Cayo Largo, Isla de la Juventud, Cuba (E-mail: gnodarse@gmail.com);
2Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras. 248 No. 0603, e/5a ave y mar, Santa Fe, Playa, La Habana, Cuba (E-mail: fmoncada@cip.alinet.cu)

On 20 July 2019, 15 green turtle albino hatchlings (Chelonia mydas) were discovered in Lindamar Beach, Cayo Largo (Canarreos Archipelago) in the southwestern region of Cuba. The hatchlings emerged from their nest after 47 days of incubation; the nest contained 112 eggs and had a hatching success of 88%.

The 15 hatchlings were transferred to the Marine Turtle Rescue Center (Cayo Largo) for captive-rearing. They are currently supplied with an alternating diet consisting of crushed fresh fish and an artificial diet (pellets), and are systematically observed by the staff of the center. After 40 days of captive care, 12/15 (80%) of the albino hatchlings had survived. These hatchlings will continue to be monitored, weighed, and measured monthly.

Albinism in sea turtle hatchlings continues to be a rare phenomenon and few known reports exist. Twenty-two loggerhead hatchlings (Caretta caretta) were born in Brazil (Marcovaldi et al. 1995), olive ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea) were observed in Mexico by Barcenas & Maldonado (2009), two green turtles were reported in Turkey (Sonmez & Yalcin 2011), and most recently, 23 green turtle hatchlings emerged from a single clutch in Florida (Perrault & Coppenrath 2019).

Godfrey & Mrosovsky (1995) hypothesized that orientation ability could be impacted in sea turtle hatchlings with pigmentation disorders, as retinal pathways to the brain are known to be abnormally routed in some albino organisms; however, this has not yet been confirmed (Perrault & Coppenrath 2019).


Figure 1. Green turtle hatchlings (Chelonia mydas) hatched in Cayo Largo (Cuba). Photo: Leonardo Valido.

Acknowledgements. We thank Justin Perrault for reviewing early stages of this manuscript draft.

BÁRCENAS, A. & A. MALDONADO. 2009. Malformaciones en embriones y neonatos de tortuga golfina (Lepidochelys olivacea) en Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, México. Veterinaria Mexico 40: 371-380.

GODFREY, M.H. & N. MROSOVSKY. 1995. Comment on albino sea turtle hatchlings in Brazil. Marine Turtle Newsletter 69:10-11<https://seaturtle.org/mtn/archives/mtn69/mtn69p10b.shtml>.

MALCOVALDI, N., E. PAEZ E LIMA & R. PENTEADO. 1995. Albino sea turtle hatchlings in Brazil. Marine Turtle Newsletter 69:10 <https://seaturtle.org/mtn/archives/mtn69/mtn69p10a.shtml>.

PERRAULT, J.R. & C.M. COPPENRATH. 2019. Albinism in Florida green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchlings: ratio-based evidence of basic Mendelian recessiveness. Marine Turtle Newsletter 156:38-40.

SÖNMEZ, B. & S.Y. ÖZDILEK. 2011. Morphologic characters of albino green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchlings on Samandağ Beach in Turkey. Marine Turtle Newsletter 131:46-47.