Globally, marine turtles are considered threatened throughout their range, and therefore conservation practitioners are increasingly investing resources in marine protected areas to protect key life history stages and critical habitats, including foraging grounds, nesting beaches and inter-nesting areas. Empirical data on the distribution of these habitats and/or the spatial ecology and behaviour of individuals of many marine turtle populations are often lacking, undermining conservation efforts, particularly along the Atlantic coast of Africa. Here we contribute to the knowledge base in this region by describing patterns of habitat use for nine green turtles Chelonia mydas tagged with satellite platform transmitter terminals at a foraging ground in Loango Bay, Republic of the Congo, one of only a few documented mainland foraging grounds for marine turtles in Central Africa. Analyses of these data revealed that core areas of habitat use and occupancy for a wide range of size/age classes were restricted to shallow waters adjacent to Pointe Indienne in Loango Bay, with most individuals showing periods of high fidelity to this area. These data are timely given the Congolese government recently announced its intention to create a marine conservation zone to protect marine turtles in Loango Bay. Despite the small sample size of this study, these data exemplify the need for comprehensive strategies that span national jurisdictions, as we provide the first documented evidence of linkages between green turtle foraging sites in Central Africa (Loango Bay, Republic of the Congo) and Southern Africa (Mussulo Bay, Angola).

中文翻译：

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追踪刚果共和国觅食的绿海龟：从数据匮乏地区洞察空间生态

在全球范围内，海龟在其整个活动范围内都受到威胁，因此保护从业者越来越多地在海洋保护区投入资源，以保护关键的生命历史阶段和关键栖息地，包括觅食场、筑巢海滩和筑巢区。通常缺乏关于这些栖息地分布和/或许多海龟种群个体的空间生态和行为的经验数据，这破坏了保护工作，特别是在非洲大西洋沿岸。在这里，我们通过描述九只绿海龟的栖息地使用模式来为该地区的知识库做出贡献大螯虾在刚果共和国 Loango 湾的觅食场上贴有卫星平台发射器终端标签，这是中非仅有的少数记录在案的海龟大陆觅食场之一。对这些数据的分析表明，各种大小/年龄级别的栖息地使用和占用的核心区域仅限于 Loango 湾与 Pointe Indienne 相邻的浅水区，大多数人对该区域表现出高度忠诚。鉴于刚果政府最近宣布打算在 Loango 湾建立一个海洋保护区以保护海龟，这些数据是及时的。尽管本研究的样本量很小，但这些数据表明需要制定跨越国家司法管辖区的综合战略，