An endangered leatherback turtle tried to nest on an Ecuador sidewalk before finding a quieter beach

NewsScience NewsNature NewsA critically endangered leatherback turtle tried to nest on an Ecuador sidewalk before finding a quieter beach; researchers tracked 146 eggs from her season and saw 134 hatch, a success rate of 91.8% A critically endangered leatherback turtle tried to nest on an Ecuador sidewalk before finding a quieter beach; researchers tracked 146 eggs from her season and saw 134 hatch, a success rate of 91.8% TOI Science Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Nov 13, 2026, 03:55 IST Photo courtesy: Cristian Soledispa_Refugio de Vida Silvestre Isla Corazón y Fragatas via Simon Fraser University In January, under the light of a full moon and one too many streetlights, a critically endangered leatherback turtle named Bella did something both remarkable and worrying: she tried to nest on a sidewalk in Ecuador.Disoriented by nearby streetlights, the enormous female crawled over a rock breakwater and left the beach behind.

She failed to lay her eggs there and returned to the ocean, still carrying them. Two nights later, she tried again, this time on a quieter stretch of sand at Playa de Crucita. There, she dug a nest, deposited 47 eggs, covered them carefully, and returned to the sea.A few weeks later, 44 hatchlings emerged and made their way toward the surf.

Bella, it turned out, was only beginning. Researchers who had tagged her during her first attempt found that she nested four or five times during the 2026 season. Across all her nests, 146 eggs produced 134 hatchlings, i.e.

a 91.8% success rate.For a species whose eastern Pacific population has fallen by more than 90% since the 1980s, that number is a small but powerful sign that leatherbacks may still be able to adapt, if people give them the space and protection to do so.

Leatherback turtles are the largest sea turtles on Earth, capable of reaching up to three metres in length and weighing as much as a tonne. They are extraordinary travellers: unlike most sea turtles, they thrive in both warm and cold waters, migrating thousands of kilometres from tropical nesting beaches to feeding grounds in cooler, subpolar parts of the Pacific, where they feed largely on jellyfish.But the eastern Pacific leatherback population is in serious trouble.

Decades of fishing bycatch, plastic pollution, vessel strikes, egg harvesting and loss of nesting habitat have combined with climate-driven pressures to push the species toward collapse. Scientists warn that, without major intervention, the eastern Pacific subspecies could disappear within 60 years.Ecuador becomes unexpected habitat ">Photo courtesy: Felipe Vallejo Equilibrio Azu via Simon Fraser University Ecuador’s role in leatherback conservation is not entirely new.

In 2021, nine leatherbacks hatched after their eggs were artificially incubated at Punta Bikini beach in Manabí province. Earlier that year, 60 leatherbacks had also hatched in the region. Before those successes, nests found along the Ecuadorian coast in 2015 and 2017 had not produced hatchlings.The difference now is scale and consistency.

Bella’s 91.8% hatching success, alongside the wider increase in nesting activity, suggests that Ecuador may be becoming more than an occasional stopover. It may be emerging as a meaningful secondary nesting area for a population that desperately needs options.Still, researchers caution against treating this as a victory lap.

A good nesting season cannot undo decades of decline. Leatherbacks face dangers long before they reach a beach and long after hatchlings enter the water: fishing nets, plastic debris, boat traffic, changing food supplies and warming oceans all remain serious threats.What needs to happen next Conservation works best when it supports natural behaviour rather than replacing it.Bella’s 134 hatchlings are not guaranteed to survive.

Many will face predators, fishing gear, pollution and an ocean that is changing faster than evolution can comfortably respond. But their emergence is proof that the species is not finished yet.A turtle that briefly mistook a sidewalk for a nesting beach, then found her way back to the sand, has given scientists and conservationists something rare: hope grounded in evidence.

The challenge now is to make sure that, next nesting season, Bella and turtles like her find safe beaches waiting for them, not lights, roads and obstacles.Your child uses AI every day. But do they understand it? Find out in the TOI AI Masterclass.

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