Two turtles of the same water system: one on İztuzu Beach, one on the lake and channel shore. Nest counts from 1979 to today move as you scroll; the figures come from the 2025 monitoring report prepared for the Ministry.
92 → 3
Local
monitor: 0
Köyceğiz · Dalyan · İztuzu
The lake empties its fresh water into the sea through the Dalyan Channel. Loggerheads nest on İztuzu Beach where the channel meets the sea; the lake and channel shore has its own species, the Nile soft-shelled turtle. Loggerheads do not nest in the lake.
Institutional source15
Photograph: Lake Köyceğiz at first light · Köyceğiz · M.Barış Ak, courtesy of the photographer
1979
The first recorded year of loggerhead nests on İztuzu. Since 1987 every year but 1995 has a count: the longest wildlife monitoring series in the basin.
Institutional source15
Photograph: A Dalyan fishing weir · Dalyan, Köyceğiz · Berthgmn, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
1990
The series rises and falls. The report notes that year-to-year differences may come from natural fluctuation as well as from different teams using different methods.
Institutional source15
Photograph: A Dalyan fishing weir · Dalyan, Köyceğiz · Berthgmn, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
2025
The season brings 770 nests (164 per kilometre), 56,067 eggs and 38,644 hatchlings, a 67% emergence success. In recent years the beach has seen the highest counts in the series.
Institutional source15
Photograph: Lake Köyceğiz, sunset from a jetty · Köyceğiz · small touch, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The lakeshore
The Nile soft-shelled turtle (Trionyx triunguis) nests on the lagoon and lake side of the beach, in dense, vegetated dunes close to the water. Foxes and badgers use the same ground.
Institutional source15
Photograph: The lakeshore on an ordinary morning · Köyceğiz · M.Barış Ak, courtesy of the photographer
2015
The best recorded year: 92 nests, 61 of them hatch, 793 hatchlings in all.
Institutional source15
Photograph: Lake Köyceğiz at first light · Köyceğiz · M.Barış Ak, courtesy of the photographer
2025
Thirteen tracks and 3 nests are recorded along the lake; all three are destroyed by foxes. No hatchlings emerged in 2020, 2024 or 2025.
Institutional source15
Who is watching?
These figures are collected by a monitoring project run for the Ministry. There is no local institution that watches the lake's own species year-round and explains the data to the public. The herbarium and field station case exists for that.
Proposal
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