Turtle Lands On Maldivian Tarmac To Lay Eggs

The green sea turtle at what is now the Maafaru Airport runway. Photo: @ParveenKaswan/Twitter

A turtle was seen laying eggs in the middle of a new airport runway built across what used to be a beach in the Maldives, reports The Independent.

The green sea turtle – an endangered species according to the IUCN – is seen in the middle of the 2,200m Maafaru runway on the atoll of Noonu, laying her eggs on the tarmac.

Sea turtles almost always return to the exact beach where they were born to lay their clutches of eggs, sometimes taking epic, multi-year journeys to reach the same small patch of sand.

Maafaru has a long history of being a popular nesting site for hundreds of turtles, according to local news outlet The Edition, which quoted officials as saying that the number of turtles visiting the island had not fallen since the construction of the airstrip last year.

“Despite the construction of the runway, the frequency with which turtles visit the island for nesting purposes has not decreased,” a source from Maafaru Island Council reportedly claimed.