Every Baby Sea Turtle in Florida Seems to Be Female. We Warned You, Scientists Say

According to a turtle hospital in Florida, all the turtles they have tested for the past four years have been female.

The sex of the sea turtles is influenced by the temperature of the sand.

As the sand gets hotter and fewer males develop, the number of males will go down.

Experts don't agree about the effect of this trend on sea turtles. According to an expert, climate change is putting a lot of stress on the animals.

Female sea turtles are made in hot sand

"There are seven species of sea turtles, and all of them produce more females as it gets warmer," said Lucy Hawkes, an ecologist from the University of Exeter.

She told Insider that all of them have very high female sex ratios.

Female sea turtles will lay their eggs in sand hotter than 88.6 Fahrenheit (31 Celsius).

According to the manager of the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, the last four summers have been the hottest on record.

Female sea turtles have been the only sea turtles that have been found in the last four years.

Around the world, the phenomenon has been seen. The study found that 99 percent of turtles were females.

Running out of males?

Some experts think this will affect the sea turtle populations.

According to David Owens, a professor at the College of Charleston, there will not be enough males in sea turtle populations in a few decades.

The lack of males could lead to poor genetic diversity among sea turtles, according to a sea turtle keeper.

It's probably more complicated than that, according to Hawkes.

She said it's not clear what the optimal gender balance should be.

Evidence shows that only a few males are needed to fertilize all the eggs in a sea turtle nest.

She said that it's possible that having lots of females could increase the population.

If the eggs are wet, there is a chance that males could still be produced.

It would threaten the population if you ran out of all males, but we don't think that will happen soon.

Sea turtles are being put under pressure by climate change.

She said that it causes more storms and sea level rise that floods the nest and kills the eggs.

Reducing the number of new hotels being built behind the beach is one of the biggest things we can do.

The original article was published by Business Insider.

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