The warming climate is making baby sea turtles almost all girls

BOA VISTA, Cape Verde — She emerged from the ocean just before midnight, clambering up the shore as her ancestors have for 200 million years.

Turtle hatchlings worldwide are expected to skew dangerously
female, scientists predict, making the animals an unwitting gauge
 for the warming climate.

Only stars glowed on this remote beach, where the sea turtle arrived to lay her eggs. She dodged plastic, fishing nets and oil spills to get this far. But another threat to her species lurks in the ground: sand temperatures that foster only one gender.

“One hundred percent girls,” whispered the biologist, crawling next to the pregnant reptile. “This nest will be 100 percent girls.”

As the earth gets hotter, turtle hatchlings worldwide are expected to skew dangerously female, scientists predict, making the animals an unwitting gauge for the warming climate. 

On the tiny West African island nation of Cape Verde — home to a sixth of the planet’s nesting loggerheads — the disparity is stark. Eighty-four percent of youngsters are now female, researchers from Britain’s University of Exeter found in a July report.

 Read the story from The Washington Post by Danielle Paquette - “The warming climate is making baby sea turtles almost all girls.”