Cape Verde group answers turtle SOS

On the island of Sal, Cape Verde, the SOS Tartarugas project has improved the survival rate for endangered loggerheads. Volunteers from the non-profit organization guard nesting females and relocate endangered nests. The turtles have to survive many threats as they grow to maturity. Hunters and mass tourism are the main dangers today.

When they are ready to nest, female turtles return to a beach in the area where they were born. They come up on to a sandy beach at night and dig out a nest to lay their eggs. Then they swim away - if they are not caught and killed by hunters. The young will have to fend for themselves.

The turtle eggs look like ping pong balls. The turtle lays up to 100, and up to five clutches of them in a season. Nature knows only a few will survive, it seems, and provides an abundant number of eggs.

The turtles' nesting beaches on the island of Sal are no longer safe. Tourist activity or wild dogs can destroy a nest. Light pollution from nearby hotels disturbs both nesting mothers and hatchlings trying to find their way to the sea. So SOS Tartarugas has etablished a hatchery.

Tourists from nearby hotels come to the hatchery to look at the tiny turtles. Most people never get to see a nesting turtle, as the reptiles only come to the beach at night and are very shy. The hatchery gives visitors a chance to see the little ones close up. SOS Tartarugas wants to teach locals and visitors how to protect the species.

Most of the turtles hatch at night. But the next day, the helpers from Cape Verde and around the world carefully excavate the nest in case any eggs are still inside. This gives visitors the chance to see hatchlings.

When the tiny turtles come out of the egg, they have to make their way through the sand to the surface - a tricky business.

Project directors Jacquie Cozens and Neal Clayton have built wire enclosures to protect the eggs and then the hatchlings from being taken by prowling cats, dogs or large crabs.

The newly hatched turtles instinctively head for the sea. The project helpers take them close to the water as soon as possible after they emerge from the eggs.

Turtles are in their element in the sea. The helpers set them on the beach to let them walk naturally into the water. They have enough energy to last 10 hours when they are born.

Only one in a thousand turtles will survive the threats of modern life to make it back to these islands to nest in around 25 years' time. Male loggerheads spend all their lives in the water. The females only come out to nest.