Cracking the Mystery of Why Some Turtle Eggs Never Hatch

This episode's guest is someone whose story begins on islands surrounded by the ocean and has led her all the way to the laboratory benches of the UK. Alessia Lavigne was born and raised in the Seychelles, where sea turtles and giant tortoises aren’t just wildlife—they’re part of the landscape, culture, and identity of the islands.Now a PhD student at the University of Sheffield, Alessia is tackling a deceptively simple question: Why do so many turtle and tortoise eggs never hatch?For endangered species, every hatchling matters. But when nests fail, conservationists often don’t know whether the eggs were never fertilized in the first place, or whether tiny embryos began developing and died before hatching. That distinction turns out to be incredibly important—and surprisingly difficult to measure.Alessia’s research is helping change that. By adapting microscopic techniques originally developed for bird eggs, she’s uncovering what’s really happening inside unhatched turtle and tortoise eggs. Her work spans species from hawksbill and green sea turtles in the Seychelles to giant tortoises, and could help conservationists make better decisions about protecting threatened populations in a warming world.Her first major paper and film on this work has already received recognition. At its heart, though, this research is about understanding why the next generation sometimes never gets the chance to begin—and what we can do about it.
More about Alessias research:Watch Torti: youtu.be/VDWANVt6plw?si=l6GAT5KyL_wp13cPThe Study: zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10… Publication: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.…: discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/reptiles/ald…