They’re creatures often associated with tropical waters and exotic shores, but a Sydney research project has revealed one of the world’s most enigmatic marine animals is really as local as our backyard magpies and ringtails.

Green sea turtles and their more elusive cousins, the hawksbills and loggerheads, are capable of some of the most epic migrations on earth, yet preliminary data from a tracking effort spearheaded by Taronga Zoo suggests they spend much of their time in NSW as homebodies who stick to one particular beach or bay.

“They are staying inshore and residing in coastal bays and estuaries,” Dr Jo Day, a conservation biologist at Taronga, said. “Our tracking data is showing that a lot of our turtles are residents to those areas, and it’s surprising how small their home ranges a

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