Rare 200kg leatherback turtle arrives at Te Papa for research

Friday, 22 March 2019

Researchers at New Zealand's national museum have started studying a 200 kilogram turtle which washed up on Banks Peninsula.

The endangered leatherback sea turtle, which washed up at Pigeon Bay in Banks Peninsula on Monday, arrived at Te Papa on Friday.

Vertebrates curator Alan Tennyson drove from Wellington to Christchurch to collect the turtle, which measures 1.8 metres long. It will be frozen at the museum's Tory St facility.

Fellow vertebrates curator Dr Colin Miskelly said researchers would now begin working through how the turtle will be 'skeletonised' to enable research.

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A massive leatherback turtle washed up in Akaroa this week, and has been delivered to Te Papa for research purposes.

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Te Papa vertebrates curator Dr Colin Miskelly receives the turtle.

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'Our main interest in this specimen is in getting disarticulated skeletons prepared for comparison with Miocene fossils,' Miskelly said.

The giant turtle's cause of death is unknown at this stage.

The Department of Conservation has estimated the turtle weighs between 200 and 300 kilograms.

However, a necropsy of the turtle would be completed over the coming months, which may reveal how it died.

'Any other research is peripheral to skeleton preparation, but we would check gut contents during necropsy if they are not too decomposed.

'In addition to identifying prey remains, this would reveal if the turtle had plastic bags in its gut,' Miskelly said.

Te Papa Pou Tikanga Taharakau Stewart performs a blessing on the turtle.

Te Papa's Pou Tikanga (cultural adviser) Taharakau Stewart blessed the turtle before it was handed over to scientists.

'This turtle is a gift Tangaroa (god of the sea) has given. This gift is fitting not only for the reflection that we have been having since last Friday, but scientifically to help the environment,' Stewart said.

Duvauchelle School students in Akaroa marvel at the size of a huge leatherback turtle which washed up in Pigeon Bay this week.

'With this taonga comes a new beginning as one people, one nation, one land.'

Local iwi gave approval for the turtle to be gifted to the museum for research.

Leatherback sea turtles are the largest of all living turtles. The turtle was so large that the Department of Conservation (DOC) had to move it with a farm tractor.

Miskelly said the leatherback turtle had been on the museum's wish list for 'a long time now', as Te Papa had a research programme focussed on fossil turtles and tortoises.

Turtles are difficult animals to turn into a skeleton, and museum staff hadn't attempted it before.

Their bones are soft and 'full of oil', which means they're difficult to keep without them rotting.

Leatherback turtles are a tropical species that live in all the world's oceans.