Radiographic Imaging Application in Capturing Nest Escaping Movement by Sea Turtle Hatchlings
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46754/umtjur.v7i1.476Keywords:
Sustainability, aggregation behaviour, social facilitation, endangered species, sea turtlesAbstract
Nest escaping is a vital process that takes up a significant amount of energy and time during the early life of sea turtle hatchlings. Previous studies have shown how hatchlings benefit from this aggregation behaviour while digging upward in the nested column. However, there is a lack of information on the relationship between the dimensions of nest escaping movement formation. This study explores the potential of radiographic imaging in capturing the dimension of digging formation to relate its potential with the energy conservation mechanism. This article describes the challenges and prospects of capturing hatchlings’ movement while digging up and escaping their underground nest via radiographic imaging (X-ray). Several trials have been conducted to seek the most suitable approach to be applied as a standard method for future studies. We developed an open-respirometry chamber with a supply of oxygen for egg incubation according to preferred clutch sizes to meet one of the objectives, which is to determine the effect of clutch sizes on the dimension of digging formation. Exposure usage of 125 kV, 40.0 mAs, and 62.5 ms were determined to produce significant X-ray images. Additionally, iron flux has been determined to be useful in measuring hatchlings’ digging progress, as it has the potential to enhance our image quality and observation. We were able to observe the position of the hatchlings with such development. Nevertheless, we do not know the accurate dimension of digging movement formation as modelled by the hatchlings.
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