Data from: Natal foraging philopatry in eastern Pacific hawksbill turtles

The complex processes involved with animal migration have long been a subject of biological interest and broad-scale movement patterns of many marine turtle populations still remain unresolved. While it is widely accepted that once marine turtles reach sexual maturity they home to natal areas for nesting or reproduction, the role of philopatry to natal areas during other life stages has received less scrutiny, despite widespread evidence across the taxa. Here we report on genetic research that indicates that juvenile hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the eastern Pacific Ocean use foraging grounds in the region of their natal beaches, a pattern we term natal foraging philopatry (NFP). Our findings confirm that traditional views of natal homing solely for reproduction are incomplete and that many marine turtle species exhibit philopatry to natal areas to forage. Our results have important implications for life-history research and conservation of marine turtles and may extend to other wide-ranging marine vertebrates that demonstrate natal philopatry.

动物迁徙所涉及的复杂过程长期以来一直是生物学研究的热点议题，而诸多海龟种群的大范围移动模式至今仍未得到完全厘清。尽管学界普遍认可，海龟达到性成熟后会返回出生地筑巢或繁殖，但尽管在该类群中已有大量相关研究证据，其他生命阶段中返回出生地的归巢保真（philopatry）行为所发挥的作用却未受到足够关注。本研究通过遗传学分析表明，东太平洋海域的幼年金海龟（Eretmochelys imbricata）会利用其出生地海滩周边区域的觅食地，我们将这一行为模式命名为出生地觅食归巢保真（natal foraging philopatry，NFP）。本研究结果证实，仅将出生地归巢行为用于繁殖用途的传统认知并不全面，且众多海龟物种确实会返回出生地区域进行觅食。本研究结果对海龟的生活史研究与物种保护具有重要参考价值，其结论或可推广至其他表现出出生地归巢保真行为的广域分布海洋脊椎动物类群。