22 Testudo Vol. 9, No. 1 Behaviour of juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) before and after fibropapillomatosis tumour removal Jenny Whilde 1* , Liam Whitmore 2 , Calvin Yang 1 , Catherine B. Eastman 1 , Rachel Thomas 1 , Devon Rollinson 1 , Brooke Burkhalter 1 , Mark Q. Martindale 1 and David J. Duffy 1,2 1 The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience & Sea Turtle Hospital, University of Florida, 9505 Ocean Shore Blvd., St. Augustine, FL 32080-8610 2 Department of Biological Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland *Corresponding author: Jenny Whilde, email: whildej@tcd.ie Introduction Wild sea turtle populations worldwide, including in Florida, are under increasing threat from a fatal virulent tumour disease, fibropapillomatosis (FP) (Herbst 1994; Duffy et al. 2018; Farrell et al. 2018; Duffy & Martindale 2019; Jones et al. 2016), potentially undermining turtle conservation efforts (Foley et al. 2005; Jones et al. 2016). Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) are the species most affected by FP (Fig. 1), but it has also been detected in all other sea turtle species (Herbst 1994). While FP tumours are generally not malignant, their detrimental consequences can result in susceptibility to other risks, including predation, parasitism and secondary diseases and infections (Vittecoq et al. 2015). Tumours can be large enough to restrict feeding, swimming, and reproductive abilities, and cause immunosuppression (Aguirre & Lutz 2004; Herbst 1994; Jones et al. 2016; Williams Jr et al. 1994). Currently, surgery is the primary treatment for turtles with FP, but at least 40% of turtles that have tumours surgically removed experience regrowth (Page-Karjian et al. 2012; Duffy et al. 2018; Farrell et al. 2018). Fibropapillomatosis is now spreading to areas where it has not previously been observed (Duarte et al. 2012; Foley et al. 2007; Page-Karjian et al. 2014; Hirama & Ehrhart 2007; Hargrove et al. 2016; Foley et al. 2015), which means that the number of stranded turtles requiring treatment for FP is also increasing. There are still many gaps in our understanding of sea turtles in general, with ongoing discussion about the most effective conservation strategies (Hamann et al. 2010). Research on the behaviour of turtles in the wild tends to focus more broadly on foraging and migration habits (Dodge et al. 2014; Hochscheid 2014; Heithaus et al. 2002; Godley et al. 2002). One study made a comparison between the behaviour of tumour-bearing and non-tumour- © British Chelonia Group + Jenny Whilde, Liam Whitmore, Calvin Yang, Catherine B. Eastman, Rachel Thomas, Devon Rollinson, Brooke Burkhalter, Mark Q. Martindale and David J. Duffy 2019