Name a sea turtle and follow its real journey

A loggerhead sea turtle as a die-cut album sticker (species illustration).

Name a sea turtle — and follow its real journey

€19,90

Certificate + 30-day journey, delivered in a minute

Soft plush (28 cm) + gift card to print, with QR code

Soft plush (28 cm) + bracelet + gift card to print, with QR code

The turtle's name

Choose it now Let them choose it

Up to 20 letters. You will see it on the map and on the certificate.

They give it a name the first time they open the journey.

Who is it for?Their first name and your message, optional

Recipient's first name

Your message (optional)

A real journey recorded in 2018, replayed one day at a time. Not live tracking.

Delivery in 3–5 days with tracking.

A gift with a story: give a name to a real loggerhead turtle and follow, day by day, the route it swam across the Mediterranean, recorded by scientists.

A new day every evening for 30 days. Every day already opened stays visible.

What arrives and when

Digital
A link and a printable PDF certificate, by email in a minute. Or on the date you choose, with your message.
Plush
The gift card to print, with the QR code to open the journey, comes by email in a minute. The plush comes by post. Delivery in 3–5 days with tracking.
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The journey
It starts when the recipient opens it: one new day of the route every day for 30 days. Every day already unlocked stays visible. Access for 12 months.

Day 1 / 30

recorded 9 July 2018

Back to the sea

Summer 2018, the Aeolian Islands. After seventeen days of care at the Filicudi First Aid Center, a young loggerhead turtle with a 62-centimetre shell slides back into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Researchers have fixed a small satellite tag to its shell, so every time it surfaces, its position is recorded. That is the journey you will follow, one day at a time. The scientists know this turtle as SZN140. For you, it is Marina.

The real first chapter of this journey, shown with the sample name Marina.

The story of this journey

In July 2018, after seventeen days of care at the Filicudi First Aid Center, a young loggerhead with a 62 cm shell went back into the sea off the Aeolian Islands, carrying a small satellite tag. In its first 30 days its daily positions trace 378 km: north-west into the open Tyrrhenian, back to about 30 km from Alicudi, then east, about 40 km north of Stromboli, to the waters off Tropea. Every point on your 30-day map is a real position, recorded on that day.

days: 30
km on the map: 378
km from the start: 111
recorded in: 2018

Where this journey comes from

Data: Chimienti M, Blasi MF, Hochscheid S (2020), Satellite Tracking of Oceanic Loggerhead Turtles in the Mediterranean, Movebank Data Repository, licence CC0.

The name you choose is a gift name: the scientists know this turtle as SZN140, and other people may follow the same journey under other names.

The whole journey +€9,90

116 days and 1,473 km on the map, to the waters off the Gulf of Naples.

See the whole journey

Questions

No. It's a real journey recorded by scientists (2018 for the turtle, 2019 for the penguin, 2008 for the elephant, 2004 for the polar bear), replayed for you one day at a time. Every point is a real recorded position; the rare estimated days are marked and drawn with a dotted line.

We join one recorded position per day with a straight line, the same line you see on your map. Its real path was longer, and the data can't say by how much.

No one owns a wild animal. The name is a gift name for the journey: it appears on your certificate and on your map. Other people may follow the same journey with other names.

MapMyPet is a gift shop, not a charity: your purchase pays for the gift. The data comes from open scientific studies, credited on every page.

When the recipient opens it. A gift opened at Christmas starts at Christmas, from day 1.

No: a link and a browser. The certificate can be printed.

12 months from activation; the certificate is yours to keep.

Delivery in 3–5 days with tracking. The gift card isn't in the parcel: it comes by email in a minute, to print.