Understanding how the external environment influences development is important for species management and requires identifying how environmental variables exert their effects individually, and how they interact to affect developing embryos. While recent research and reviews have focused on temperature during incubation, emerging evidence suggests other environmental variables are also important in determining hatchling phenotypes. In some countries, they are hunted for their meat and shells and their eggs are eaten.Developing embryos of oviparous reptiles show substantial plasticity in their responses to environmental conditions during incubation, which can include altered sex ratios, morphology, locomotor performance and hatching success. Pollution like plastic bags are often mistaken for food such as jellyfish and ingested, which blocks their intestines and potentially kills them. Coastal development can destroy important nesting sites, impact coral reefs, and artificial light from houses and other buildings attracts hatchlings away from the ocean. Sea turtles often drown when caught in fishing gear.

Among the threats these marine reptiles face are entanglement, habitat loss, and consumption of their eggs and meat. These ancient creatures have been on Earth for more than 100 million years - even surviving the dinosaurs when they became extinct 65 million years ago. The juvenile turtles spend their first few years in the open oceans, eventually moving to protected bays, estuaries, and other nearshore waters as adults.Įach species relies on a different diet: greens eat sea grasses leatherbacks feed on jellyfish and soft-bodied animals loggerheads eat heavy-shelled animals such as crabs and clams hawksbills rely on sponges and other invertebrates and the Kemp’s ridley prefers crabs. After about sixty days, baby sea turtles (known as 'hatchlings') emerge from their sandy nests and make their way to the ocean -attracted to the distant horizon. These reptiles spend their entire lives at sea, except when adult females come ashore to lay eggs several times per season every 2 to 5 years. Leatherbacks are capable of withstanding the coldest water temperatures (often below 40˚F) and are found as far south as Chile and as far north as Alaska. Some loggerheads nest in Japan and migrate to Baja California Sur, Mexico to forage before returning home again. They migrate long distances to feed, often crossing entire oceans. Sea turtles live in almost every ocean basin throughout the world, nesting on tropical and subtropical beaches. Leatherbacks and loggerheads can travel thousands of miles each year, while greens and olive ridleys have shorter migrations, while hawksbills rarely leave a relatively small area. Some sea turtles migrate very long distances while others stay close to home. Sea turtles don’t have a favorite food (though most will eat jellyfish.) Each species focuses on different prey for food the leatherback eats mostly jellyfish, greens primarily eat seagrass, loggerheads prefer crustaceans, and hawksbills eat primarily sea sponges. That temperature is generally around 82 degrees F (29 degrees C) though that can vary by species and location. The sex of sea turtles, like other reptiles, depends on the temperature in the nest. But the female adults can lay thousands of eggs over their lifetimes, so at least a few of them survive to maintain the species. They have many natural predators including birds, crabs, fish, and mammals like racoons. It is estimated that only one out of 1,000 hatchlings survives to be an adult. Flatbacks are listed as data deficient on the IUCN Red List but are listed as endangered in Australia. Two are critically endangered (hawksbill and Kemp’s ridley), one is endangered (green and and three are threatened (leatherback, olive ridley, and loggerhead). 5 facts About Sea TurtlesĪll seven species are considered threatened or endangered. Their size varies greatly, depending upon species - from the small Kemp’s ridley, which weighs between 80–100 pounds, to the enormous leatherback, which can weigh more than 1,000 pounds. These creatures are well-adapted to the ocean though they require air to survive. Sadly, the fact is that they face many dangers as they travel the seas - including accidental capture and entanglement in fishing gear (also known as bycatch), the loss of nesting and feeding sites to coastal development, poaching, and ocean pollution including plastic. From leatherbacks to loggerheads, six of the seven species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered at the hand of humans.

Kemps reptile incubator