Padre Island National Seashore - Dog to Help Staff (U.S. National Park Service)

Trained Dog to Help Locate Nest

Ridley Ranger is a 2 year old Cairn Terrier that has been trained to find Kemp’s ridley nests at sites where park staff have been unable to locate them.

		Ridley Ranger Locating a Nest Ridley Ranger is a 2 year old Cairn Terrier that has been trained to find Kemp’s ridley nests at sites where park staff have been unable to locate them. During May 2006, Dr. Donna Shaver, (Chief, Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery at Padre Island National Seashore) started training Ridley to find nests and he has been a member of the sea turtle team since then. More Kemp’s ridley nests are found on North Padre Island than any other location in the U.S. and the park has worked with many partners for years to increase nesting here. Volunteer and staff beach patrollers diligently search to find track locations where the nesting females emerged on the beach, so that the nests can be documented and protected from various threats. However, it can be very difficult to find Kemp’s ridley nests because of the small body size of these turtles and their tendency to nest during the day, on windy days, and in synchronous emergences. Sometimes it is impossible to find the nest because a large portion of the tracks have blown away by the time that biologists arrive. During 2007, staff and volunteers spent 5 hours searching a site that had been found by beach patrollers on North Padre Island. Unable to find the nest, they marked the site and called in Ridley. He was brought to the site and found the nest immediately. Had he not found the nest it would have gone unprotected and would likely have suffered high mortality or perhaps not hatched at all due to human impacts at that particular location. Ninety-two healthy hatchlings were successfully released from this nest in July. Nesting is increasing and Dr. Shaver plans to continue to use Ridley and perhaps other trained dogs as a tool in our sea turtle conservation and research efforts in the future.