Sea turtles
15 places to see and hear sea turtles in the wild, in 15 countries from Cabo Verde to Angola: when each one peaks, where to go on your own, what it costs and what you will hear. Wild animals only, no zoos.
Best time, place by place
Where to go, north to south
Loggerhead turtles nesting on Boa Vista, Sal and MaioMostly a visual and tactile night: the rasp and thump of a 100 kg female digging, sand flung against her shell, the long sighing breaths as she lays, then the surf. Hatchling nights add a faint rustle as a hundred animals break the surface together. The beaches are dark, empty and wind-blown.
Kartong — wetland pools, Allahein river mouth and turtle beachCrakes and pygmy geese in the sand-mine pools, a wader roost at the Allahein mouth, and on rainy-season nights the beach with the surf and, if you are lucky, a nesting green turtle's breathing.
Green turtle nesting on Poilão — Africa's largest rookeryA beach with hundreds of females digging at once: sand thrown against the vegetation, the long sighs of turtles breathing, flippers on wet sand, and surf — with the forest's night birds and fruit bats behind. Sacred island: no other human sound at all.
Sherbro and the Turtle Islands — terns, waders and turtle beachesTern and wader roosts on white sandbanks between eight Sherbro-speaking fishing islands, surf, and the villages' evening singing; dolphins in the channels.
Sea turtle nesting on Liberia's beachesA leatherback's long sighing breaths and flippers throwing sand on an empty Atlantic beach with surf and, behind, the forest's night — a sighting spectacle first, but the breathing of a two-metre animal beside you is a sound to keep.
Sea turtles nesting at Grand-BérébyMostly a sight, but the sound is worth having: the heavy breathing and sand-throwing of a leatherback digging, flippers slapping wet sand, and the surf of the Gulf of Guinea behind it.
Sea turtles on the Togo coastA sighting more than a sound: the heavy breathing and sand-scraping of a nesting female against the surf, and the patrol team's low talk.
Sea turtles nesting at Grand-Popo and OuidahA sight more than a sound, but with a close mic: sand thrown by a leatherback's flippers, the deep exhalations of a nesting female, and the Bight of Benin surf behind.
Sea turtles at Ebodjé and the Campo Ma'an coastA visual event with a good close-mic moment: the digging and heavy breathing of a nesting turtle against the surf; behind the beach the Campo Ma'an forest at night.
Bioko's southern beaches: leatherbacks, green turtles and the Caldera primatesBlack-sand surf, then the scrape and sigh of a leatherback digging a few metres away. At dawn the forest behind Moaba is one of the richest primate choruses in Africa: drill grunts and crowing, the chatter of red-eared monkeys, colobus roars, hornbills and the Bioko race of the grey parrot. Waterfalls drop straight onto the beach between the nesting bays.
Turtle nights on São Tomé — Praia Jalé, Praia Inhame and Morro PeixeSurf on a black-sand beach, the scrape and thrown sand of a green turtle digging, her breathing, and the forest behind the beach: São Tomé scops owl, frogs, the squeak of fruit bats in the coconut palms. Quiet beaches without engine noise — the south is the end of the road.
Leatherback nesting from Pongara to Mayumba — Gabon's turtle coastA leatherback digging is a slow, heavy scrape and the hiss of thrown sand, with deep sighing breaths — audible from 20 m on a still night between sets of surf. Otherwise the night is surf, the odd nightjar and, at Pongara, hippos and elephants in the forest behind the beach.
Conkouati-Douli: humpback whales and leatherback nestingBlows and breaches from the beach, humpback song on a hydrophone from a drifting pirogue, and at night the digging and heavy breathing of a leatherback on a wild beach with no lights for 50 km; chimpanzees pant-hooting from the lagoon islands at dawn.
Mangroves of the Congo mouth: manatees, turtle beaches and the only marine park in the DRCA mangrove dawn: the drip and click of the Rhizophora at low water, kingfishers, herons, fish eagles, the blow of a manatee surfacing in a side channel (a short, sharp exhalation, easy to miss), hippos grunting in the back creeks; at night on the beach, surf and a nesting ridley's scraping — and the Congo's current audible against the sandbanks at Banana.
Olive ridley nesting on the Angolan coast — the Atlantic's largest populationA sighting with a close-mic moment: the scraping and heavy breathing of a nesting ridley — a small turtle, a quick nest — against the Atlantic surf, and the Kitabanga patrol's low voices.