Fusté, Roger, Mejías-Balsalobre, Carmen, Webster, Emily J., Naranjo, Isabel, Arauz, Randall, and Rojas-Cañizales, Daniela (2026) Inter-beach movements and inter-nesting periods of olive ridley sea turtles relate to nesting behavior in a nascent arribada beach. Marine Biology, 173. 117.

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Abstract

Olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) exhibit two nesting behaviors: solitary nesting and synchronized mass-nesting, known as arribada, with females able to switch between behaviors rather than being exclusive to one strategy. Although arribadas are thought to be driven by environmental and/or social cues that promote synchronized breeding, it remains unclear to what extent they can shape the spatial and temporal dynamics of nesting olive ridleys. Our study documents how nesting behavior influences the frequency of inter-beach movements and the length of within-season inter-nesting periods (IP). We examined records of 4,273 tagged and 555 recaptured individuals from 2016 to 2019 at Corozalito, a nascent arribada nesting beach on the Costa Rican Pacific, and its three neighboring solitary-nesting beaches. Inter-beach movements were recorded for 99 turtles (17.8%), primarily from solitary-nesting beaches towards Corozalito during arribadas. IPs of females nesting in arribadas were not consistent across seasons while IPs between consecutive solitary nesting events were stable across years and comparable to values reported for other olive ridley rookeries. We suggest that arribadas at Corozalito prompt inter-beach movements of olive ridleys that nest on solitary neighboring beaches, attracting them to the mass nesting location. Additionally, breeding synchrony may extend the IP of turtles that have already laid their first nest by delaying oviposition until the arribada begins. However, this delay appears to be context-dependent, likely influenced by the timing of arribadas and individual nesting histories. These findings contribute to better understanding the processes involved in the formation of arribadas and their associated nesting dynamics.

Item ID:	92135
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1432-1793
Copyright Information:	Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Date Deposited:	09 Jun 2026 23:53
FoR Codes:	31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310301 Behavioural ecology @ 50% 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 50%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 100%
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