Endangered turtle goes to lay eggs but airport runway is built on beach

A turtle returned to lay its eggs on a beach only to find that an airport runway had been built there.

The confused animal laid its eggs on the tarmac where a beach used to be.

Green sea turtles almost always return to the same beach where they were born to lay their own eggs, often making lengthy journeys to get there.

An upsetting photograph shows the turtle with its three eggs on the man-made surface, in an image seen as depicting the reality of habitat loss.

It happened on Maafaru runway on the atoll of Noonu in the Maldives, reports the Edition.

‘Despite the construction of the runway, the frequency with which turtles visit the island for nesting purposes has not decreased,’ a source from Maafaru Island Council told the paper.

They reported the turtle was otherwise in good health and was released back into the ocean by local people.

Of the seven types of sea turtle in the world, five can be found in the Maldives.

Green sea turtles as classified as endangered, with the World Wildlife Foundation saying they are threatened by loss of nesting beach sites, as well as overharvesting of their eggs, hunting of adults, and being caught in fishing gear.