Endangered hawksbill turtle dies after eating 106 pieces of plastic

Monday, 6 November 2017

Auckland Zoo found 106 pieces of plastic inside an endangered hawksbill turtle, which died after 13 days of intensive care.

An endangered hawksbill turtle that died after 13 days of intensive care had 106 pieces of plastic in its stomach.

Auckland Zoo veterinarian Lydia Uddstrom said the turtle was the fourth hawksbill to be treated at the zoo this year after eating plastic.

Two others had died, and the remaining one was still being rehabilitated.

A hawksbill turtle at Auckland Zoo being given a checkup earlier this year.

Uddstrom said New Zealand was outside the natural habitat of most sea turtles, so those that showed up here were generally in poor condition.

**READ MORE:

Auckland Zoo veterinarian Lydia Uddstrom with plastic from the stomachs of three hawksbill turtles that died this year.

* Third of turtles found dead on New Zealand beaches had eaten plastics

* Third of seabirds found dead on NZ and Australian shores had eaten plastic

* Remote, uninhabited South Pacific island becomes a plastic wasteland**

'They are really skinny, severely dehydrated, and very flat demeanour-wise. She definitely fitted into all three of those categories.

'The hard thing with turtles is they get better really slowly, and they also deteriorate really slowly. She was one where her behaviour was really up and down.

'We were seeing a steady improvement, so it was a big surprise when she died.'

Diagnosing plastic ingestion was especially difficult while the animal was alivebecause, unlike metals, plastic did not show up on X-rays.

The plastic fragments included film, from the likes of supermarket shopping bags, and hard fragments such as bottle tops.

'It's so sad to see, because all of that is definitely coming from us.'