The Animal That Knows Its Way Home

A sea turtle may travel thousands of kilometres across the ocean and still find its way back to the beach where it was born.

That sounds almost impossible.

There are no road signs.

No familiar buildings.

No landmarks that we can recognise.

And yet, female sea turtles can return to their natal beaches to lay their eggs.

Scientists believe they use several clues, including the Earth’s magnetic field, which may provide them with a kind of natural map.

What fascinates me most is the scale of the journey.

A turtle leaves a beach as a tiny hatchling.

Years pass.

It crosses enormous stretches of ocean.

Then, when it is mature enough to reproduce, it somehow finds its way back towards the place where its own life began.

We often think of home as an address.

For a sea turtle, perhaps home is something much deeper.

A direction.

A memory written into the body.

A pull that cannot easily be explained by words.

And perhaps that is why the return of a sea turtle feels so moving.

After travelling through an ocean without roads, it comes back to a particular piece of sand.

The place where it began.

The place it somehow remembered.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah, Guwahati, Assam, India, Instagram @rajatchandrasarmah, YouTube: conversewithasmile, email rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com

Published by Rajat Chandra Sarmah