Decoy sea turtle eggs equipped with GPS help track down smugglers

By Donna Lu

A dozen decoy turtle eggs

Helen Pheasey

Sea turtle nests are targeted by poachers, but they have a new obstacle to getting away with the goods: 3D-printed decoy eggs with GPS trackers, called InvestEggator. These can track eggs that have been illegally removed and could help identify the chain involved in their illegal trade.

The decoy eggs, about the size of a ping-pong ball, were developed by conservation organisation Paso Pacifico in Nicaragua as a means to fight wildlife poaching. Helen Pheasey at the University of Kent in the UK and her colleague then used them to follow the trafficking …