![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arribada (ah-rhee-BAH-dah) - n., a mass nesting of sea turtles.
Specifically, the two species of genus Lepidochelys, the olive ridley sea turtle of the Pacific Ocean and Kemp’s ridley sea turtle of the Gulf of Mexico, when hundreds of turtles come out of the sea to lay eggs in sandy nests at the same time. This is a strategy known as predator swamping: so many eggs, there's a good chance at least some will survive. Adopted in 1971 from Spanish arribada, arrival, literally the feminine past participle of arribar, to arrive/land/put to shore, from Vulgar Latin arrīpāre, to arrive on shore, from Latin ad- + ripa shore, and the ancestor (through French) of English arrive.
---L.
Specifically, the two species of genus Lepidochelys, the olive ridley sea turtle of the Pacific Ocean and Kemp’s ridley sea turtle of the Gulf of Mexico, when hundreds of turtles come out of the sea to lay eggs in sandy nests at the same time. This is a strategy known as predator swamping: so many eggs, there's a good chance at least some will survive. Adopted in 1971 from Spanish arribada, arrival, literally the feminine past participle of arribar, to arrive/land/put to shore, from Vulgar Latin arrīpāre, to arrive on shore, from Latin ad- + ripa shore, and the ancestor (through French) of English arrive.
---L.
