Nest protection through egg relocation from natural nests into protected hatcheries is a common practice used at rookeries around the world to increase hatchling recruitment into sea turtle populations. However rarely have the impacts of this practice on hatchling recruitment and quality been assessed. This study investigated the influences of the thermal nest environment of olive ridley turtles Lepidochelys olivacea on emergence success and quality of hatchlings of hatchery nests in Alas Purwo National Park, East Java, Indonesia (2009 and 2010 nesting seasons). Nest temperatures above 34°C for at least 3 consecutive days during incubation in the hatchery resulted in decreases in emergence success and locomotor performance of hatchlings.The use of the hatchery is recommended due to extremely high predation rate of nests left on the beach, however, altering hatchery management practice by spacing nests one metre apart and providing shade should improve hatchery outcomes now and into the future.

The nest environment, in particular sand temperature, is critical to the breeding ecology of sea turtles which lack parental care during their early stages of life. We investigated the effects of sand temperature on emergence success and sex ratio of Olive Ridley Lepidochelys olivacea hatchlings in in situ and relocated nests in Alas Purwo National Park (APNP), East Java, Indonesia. Over two years of observation no in situ nests survived due to predation while emergence success in relocated nests varied between the years. Temperatures above 34°C experienced by the nests over at least 3 consecutive days during incubation (T3dm) had decreased emergence success in both years. These high temperatures occurred as a result of metabolic heating of developing embryos combined with high sand temperatures. The indirect method of determining sex ratios from nest temperature profiles indicated that the hatchery at APNP generated more male hatchlings than female. Our study provides justification for on-going egg relocation to the hatchery as a conservation management strategy. Therefore the nest environment inside the hatchery needs to be carefully managed so that temperatures do not exceed the viable limit nor unnaturally skew the sex ratio of embryos.

Primates live in complex social systems with social structures ranging from more to less despotic. In less despotic species, dominance might impose fewer constraints on social choices, tolerance is greater than in despotic species and subordinates may have little need to include novel food items in the diet (i.e. neophilia), as contest food competition is lower and resources more equally distributed across group members. Here, we used macaques as a model to assess whether different dominance styles predict differences in neophilia and social tolerance over food. We provided familiar and novel food to 4 groups of wild macaques (N = 131) with different dominance styles (Macaca fuscata, M. fascicularis, M. sylvanus, M. maura). Our study revealed inter- and intra-specific differences in individuals’ access to food, which only partially reflected the dominance styles of the study subjects. Contrary to our prediction, social tolerance over food was higher in more despotic species than in less despotic species. Individuals with a higher dominance rank and being better socially integrated (i.e. higher Eigenvector centrality) were more likely to retrieve food in all species, regardless of their dominance style. Partially in line with our predictions, less integrated individuals more likely overcame neophobia (as compared to more integrated ones), but only in species with more tolerance over food. Our study suggests that individual characteristics (e.g. social integration or personality) other than dominance rank may have a stronger effect on an individual’s access to resources.