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LITERATURE CITED

Caillouet, C. W., Jr. 1984. Essai de prévention de l'extinction de la
tortue de Kemp. Les Carnets de Zoologie 44(2):28-34.

Fontaine, C. T., K. T. Marvin, T. D. Williams, W. J. Browning, R. M.
Harris, K. L. W. Indelicato, G. A. Shattuck and R. A. Sadler. 1985.
The husbandry of hatchling to yearling Kemp's ridley sea turtles,
Lepidochelys kempi. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFC-158, ii
plus 34 p., 10 tables, 22 figures and 2 appendices.

Klima, E. F. and J. P. McVey. 1981. Headstarting the Kemp's ridley
turtle, Lepidochelys kempi, p. 481-487. In: Bjorndal, Karen A. (ed.),
Biology and Conservation of Sea Turtles, Smithsonian Inst. Press,
Wash., D.C., 583 p.


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oS} NOAA Technical Memorandum
: NMFS-SEFC-164

a oF a

Patterns and variability in First-year Growth
in Weight of Captive-reared Kemp’s Ridley

Sea Turtle: a Graphical Analysis

By

Charles W. Caillouet, Jr.
and

Dennis B. Kol

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Matcolm Baldrige, Secretary

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Anthony J. Calio, Acting Administrator

Nationa! Marine Fisheries Service
William G. Gordon, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries

ac SP

JULY 1985

qe ep it A ST SS

Technical Memorandums are used for documentation and timely
communication of preliminary interim reports, or special-purpose

information, and have not received complete formal review,
editorial control, or detailed editing.


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4) 98 182 2/2

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—


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks are due René Marquez Millan (Instituto Nacional de la
Pesca, Mexico), Jack Woody and David Bowman (U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Albuquerque, New Mexico), Milford Fletcher (National Park Service,
Santa Fe, New Mexico), Patrick Burchfield (Gladys Porter Zoo, Brownsville,
Texas), and Robert King (National Park Service, Corpus Christi, Texas),
their staffs and their predecessors, for their respective roles in pro-
viding Kemp's ridley hatchlings for head starting.

Head starting of the 1978-1983 year-classes of Kemp's ridley was
conducted under consecutive permits no. ABC-IV-0751/8676, ABC-IV-1258/4287,
242-0180-3794, 242.2-2610, 242.2-00026/1147 and CG-115-900 (and Mexican
Diplomatic Note no. 316502) issued by Mexico's Instituto Nacional de la
Pesca, under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered and Threatened
Species Permits no. PRT 2-1770, PRT 2-4481 and PRT-676379, and under scien-
tific permits issued by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Florida
Department of Natural Resources.

The authors are grateful to Edward F. Klima, James P. McVey and Ray S.
Wheeler, Clark T. Fontaine, Jorge K. Leong, and their staffs for their
roles in sea turtle head starting at the Galveston Laboratory.

Dickie Revera and Marcel Duronslet assisted in checking, verifying and
validating some of the data used in our graphs. Bea Richardson typed the
manuscript. |

Carole Allen, Chairperson of HEART (Help Endangered Animals-Ridley
Turtles), Piney Woods Wildlife Society, North Harris County College,
Houston, Texas, and the members of HEART have increased public awareness
and support of the Kemp's ridley head start research project as well as for
sea turtle conservation in general. For their efforts, we are especially
grateful.


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The legend above each graph gives the year-class and either the
"imprint"-group (PINS or RN) or the clutch number. For clutches in year-
classes 1981-1983, the initial number of hatchlings in each clutch is given
in parentheses after the clutch number.

RESULTS

The graphs show the following with regard to growth in weight (kg) of
Kemp's ridley:

1. Variability was heterogeneous; j.e., variability among individual
turtles, as shown by the ranges, increased with age in days
(1981-1983 year-classes) or lapsed time in days (when age was
unknown; 1978-1980 year-classes).

2. Variability was greater within year-classes 1978-1980 than within
year-classes 1981-1983. This primarily was a consequence of dif-
ferences in sampling methods.

3. Growth slowed near the middle of the head starting period and
resumed thereafter, probably due to decrease in temperature during
winter.

4. Slower growth seemed linked to lower survival and vice versa for
clutches of the 1981-1983 year-classes.

5. Growth was most rapid in the 1980 year-class and slowest in the
1983 year-class.

DISCUSSION

For details concerning interpretation, the reader is referred to
—Caillouet et al.l/,


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INTRODUCTION

While conducting statistical analyses and preparing graphs for the
paper by Caillouet et al.l/ on growth of six year-classes (1978-1983) of
captive-reared Kemp's ridley sea turtle, Lepidochelys kempi, we prepared
the graphs in this technical memorandum. They were too numerous to include
in a journal article, so we reproduced them herein. The turtles were
reared as part of the Kemp's ridley sea turtle head start research project
(Klima and McVey, 1981; Caillouet, 1984; Fontaine et al., 1985).

METHODS

For details concerning rearing methods, sampling to determine weights,
etc., the reader is referred to Caillouet et al.2/ and Fontaine et al.
(1985).

The graphs depict the geometric mean weight (shown either by uncon-
nected short horizontal lines for the 1978-1980 year-classes or connected
by solid lines for the 1981-1983 year-classes) and ranges in weight
(vertical lines) of samples of turtles by “imprint"-group (i.e., turtles
"imprinted" at PINS = Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi,
Texas, and at RN = Rancho Nuevo, Mexico) within the 1978-1980 year-classes
and by clutch number within the 1981-1983 year-classes. The geometric mean
was calculated as the antilog of the mean of logarithmically transformed
sample weights. The time-course of survival (%; dashed line) also is shown
for clutches of the 1981-1983 year-classes.

This paper includes two graphs each for the 1978-1980 year-classes, 23
for the 1981 year-class, 20 for the 1982 year-class, and three for the 1983

year-class.

——$—_—————

1/caillouet, C. W., dr., D. B. Koi, C. T. Fontaine, T. 0. Williams, W. J.
Browning and R. M. Harris. Growth and survival of Kemp's ridley sea

turtle, Lepidochelys kempi, in captivity. Manuscript submitted to the
editor, Chelonian Documentation Center Bulletin.


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