Monday, August 18, 2008

Confused Sea Turtles Go to Italian Restaurant

From Reuters:

About 60 newly hatched sea turtles lost their way during their ritual passage to the sea and marched into an Italian restaurant instead, a conservation worker said on Monday.

The baby turtles -- which ended up under the tables of startled diners at the beachside restaurant -- were probably thrown off track and lured by the eatery's bright lights, said Antonio Colucci, who was called to help rescue the group.

"They saw the artificial lights and took the wrong route," said Colucci, who works on a turtle monitoring project for the conservation group WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature).

"The diners were at first quite curious and then someone alerted the coastal authorities."

The stranded turtles, which had hatched on a beach in the southern Italian region of Calabria, were released into the sea.

How did the turtles open the door?

2 comments:

J. Gravelle said...

This is precisely why we need the DNR to protect us from the environmental scourge of Italian eateries...

-jjg
DailyScoff.com

Mary said...

Yes. Thank God the DNR is there to protect us from those Italian restaurants.