News > Largest colony of nesting green turtles nearly twice as big

Largest colony of nesting green turtles nearly twice as big

The world's largest population of nesting green turtles is nearly twice as big as previously thought after drones enabled better surveys of the animals near the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Previously, researchers would paint a non-toxic white stripe down the turtles' shells and would count them, those with and without white stripes, from a small boat. But this way of counting proved inaccurate due to poor visibility, the researchers said.