PHUKET: Eighty-five fertile eggs laid at a beach by a rare visitor to the Andaman coast, a leatherback turtle, have been relocated to a spot further along the coast inside the boundary of the national park in Phangnga province, to ensure their safety.
Park workers, local residents and navy personnel all lent a hand to the delicate rescue operation.
This is the second year that leatherback turtles have returned to lay eggs on the Andaman coast in Thailand, after an absence of about a decade.
Mongkol Liewviriyakul, chief of Khao Lampi-Hat Thai Muang National Park, and VAdam Chuengchai Chomchengphat, the Region 3 Royal Thai Navy commander, said on Monday the eggs from the 194-centimetre-long turtle had been dug out of the sand and reburied inside the park boundary. (continues below)
The turtle laid 104 eggs, 19 of them undeveloped, in a nest she scraped out on a beach four kilometres south of the park on Sunday. The nest area is prone to high tides from the Andaman Sea, which could put the eggs at risk.
After the turtle returned to the sea, the eggs were dug up and moved to an ideal spot on the park beach in Thai Muang district.
The Facebook page of the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department showed the operation continued into the night after the turtle released the eggs about 5.40pm.
Mr Mongkol said on Sunday that park rangers and district officials will patrol the beaches in Thai Muang until the end of December, as it is a season for leatherback turtles to lay eggs.
Workers put the eggs into a foam box before transporting them to the national park. (Photo from National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Facebook account)