🐾 Sea Turtle

Sea Turtle

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Who it is

• Scientific name: Superfamily Chelonioidea
• Family & relatives: Sea turtles are reptiles, related to land tortoises, freshwater turtles, and distantly to crocodiles and birds.
• How to spot it: A sea turtle has a large, streamlined shell, flat flippers instead of feet, and a beaked head it cannot pull inside its shell.

Its body & abilities

• Size: Sea turtles range from the small Kemp's ridley to the leatherback, which can be over six feet long.
• Weight: Most weigh a few hundred pounds, but a leatherback can weigh over a thousand pounds.
• Body & adaptations: A sea turtle has a bony shell, powerful front flippers for swimming, lungs for breathing air, and a sharp beak instead of teeth.
• Top speed: Sea turtles glide gracefully and can burst to speeds of about 20 miles per hour when frightened.
• Strength: Strong flippers let them swim long distances and dive deep, holding their breath for hours while resting.
• Senses: Sea turtles see well underwater, have a good sense of smell, and can sense Earth's magnetic field to navigate.
• Growing up: Hatchlings dig out of beach nests, rush to the sea, drift for years, then grow slowly to adulthood.

Where it lives

• Habitat: Sea turtles live in warm and tropical oceans, feeding near reefs, sea grass beds, and open water.
• Where in the world: Sea turtles swim across all the world's warm oceans and migrate thousands of miles.
• Territory: Sea turtles do not defend territory, but females return to the very beach where they hatched to lay eggs.

What it eats

• Diet: Diet varies by species, from plant-eaters to jellyfish hunters.
• Favorite foods: They eat sea grass, algae, jellyfish, sponges, crabs, and other small sea creatures.
• How it hunts: Green turtles graze on sea grass, while leatherbacks chase and gulp down jellyfish.

How it behaves

• How it moves: Sea turtles fly through the water by flapping their front flippers like wings.
• When it is active: Sea turtles feed by day and rest wedged under ledges or floating at the surface.
• Family life: Sea turtles mostly live alone but may gather at rich feeding grounds and nesting beaches.
• How it talks: Sea turtles communicate little as adults, but hatchlings may make sounds inside the nest to hatch together.
• Babies: Females crawl ashore at night, dig a nest, and lay around a hundred eggs that hatch about two months later.

Its place in nature

• Role in nature: Sea turtles keep sea grass beds healthy, control jellyfish, and carry life on their shells across the sea.
• Conservation: Many sea turtle species are Endangered or Vulnerable, harmed by fishing nets, plastic, poaching, and lost nesting beaches.
• Dangers: Hatchlings are eaten by crabs, birds, and fish, and very few survive to become adults.

Life & legacy

• How long it lives: Sea turtles are long-lived and can reach 50 years or more in the wild.
• In our culture: Sea turtles appear in many myths and legends and are beloved symbols of the ocean.
• Where to see it: See sea turtles while snorkeling over reefs, at protected nesting beaches, and in aquariums and rescue centers.
• Fun fact: A sea turtle can travel thousands of miles across the ocean and still find the exact beach where it was born.