Adelita is the name of the first
sea turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhe ...
tracked across an
ocean basin
In hydrology, an oceanic basin (or ocean basin) is anywhere on Earth that is covered by seawater. Geologically, ocean basins are large geologic basins that are below sea level.
Most commonly the ocean is divided into basins fol ...
, the northern
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
. A
satellite tag was placed on Adelita, a female
loggerhead sea turtle
The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully ...
(''Caretta caretta''), in 1996 by marine biologist
Wallace J. Nichols for a research project.
The Adelita tracking project provided the first proof of the trans-Pacific migration of loggerhead sea turtles. Adelita was also the first animal to swim across an ocean while being tracked by a satellite.
The 9,000 mile journey of Adelita from Mexico to Japan was featured in the PBS Nature documentary ''Voyage of the Lonely Turtle''. The documentary follows Adelita as she returns to her birthplace in Japan to lay her eggs.
See also
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Loggerhead sea turtle
The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully ...
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Magnetoreception
Magnetoreception is a sense which allows an organism to detect the Earth's magnetic field. Animals with this sense include some arthropods, molluscs, and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, though not humans). The se ...
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GPS wildlife tracking
GPS animal tracking is a process whereby biologists, scientific researchers or conservation agencies can remotely observe relatively fine-scale movement or migratory patterns in a free-ranging wild animal using the Global Positioning System (G ...
References
External links
Original web siteTracking PageNichols' Blog
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{{Cheloniidae
Sea turtles
Individual turtles
Individual wild animals
Caretta