Litchi, the Green Turtle, was released a few months ago, and she has finally started making her way up the African coast; so far, she has travelled 5000km.
Cape Town, South Africa (05 August 2022) – The Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation announced in September 2021 that Litchi was ready to be released back into the ocean. Before she could go back, they needed to fit her with a tracking device, just like the one that Yoshi wore.
Litchi is a Green Turtle, and she was rescued in De Hoop on the 21st of February, 2021. She appeared to be in good health but had a pretty bad infestation of marine leeches. She was quite anaemic but able to recover quite well once the leeches were removed.
Her rehabilitation process was trial and error for a time. She developed a bubble butt, which made her swim with her bum out of the water. Her body was also sitting high off the ground, so the team treated her for worms, did a contrast study, and examined her poop. Eventually, they just gave her space to have a really good fart!
Once she was well enough, the team started raising funds to have a tracker placed on her shell. This was done successfully, and before long, Litchi found her way back into the ocean. She was released over three months ago and has already travelled around 5000km. She was released back into the De Hoop Nature Reserve and spent her first few weeks exploring the area thoroughly.
“Her choice to intentionally spend her time in De Hoop really does reinforce how special this reserve is and how important MA’s (Marine Areas) are – especially for endangered species like the Green sea turtles”
Litchi has since moved on from the reserve, up past Cape Point and off to larger oceans. The team have speculated that she could be heading towards the Ivory Coast or even Chad.
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