Sea Turtles

Did you know that sea turtles can not put their head in their body’s like land turtles? If you guessed this then you are right, not all turtles have the power in their limbs to hide in their shells. Sea turtles have four life stages: the egg stage, baby sea turtle stage, young adulthood stage and the adulthood stage, but the first stage is the egg stage.

Egg stage:

Did you know that sea turtles have lived on earth more than 150 million years, sea turtle eggs are ping pong size balls. The female lays around 1000 eggs. They lay the eggs past the high tide mark and dig a hole for the eggs and then rushes back to the ocean. They will not hatch until 2 months. Turtle eggs can be hard shelled or relatively soft depending on the particular species. New laid turtle eggs feel like leather eggs. 1000 are laid and then hatch. You will see the baby sea turtles squirming to the water but it gets a lot harder for them. Only 20% will not hatch.

Baby Sea turtles:

As the baby sea turtles are rushing for the sea they face many challenges like crabs, seagulls, raccoons and dogs. Approximately 400 make it to the water but there are challenges that still await them in the water. They have to face sharks and all the other predators. Sea turtles have to face many challenges to survive. Sea turtles may be carnivorous (meat eating). As they grow into young adulthood, when they grow there comes more protection for the turtle.

Young Adult:

Growing up there comes more protection for the sea turtle. Sea turtles sleep with holding their breath underwater. They eat the reefs, it takes time for them to digest the food and it takes a long time for them to get the food into their mouths.

Adult:

The female adult lives in the sea for a while then goes back to the beach where they were born and rushes past the high tide line and digs a hole and lays the eggs. The sea turtle will go back to the ocean.

Now that they are adults they have new enemies like great white shark and big whales. After a few years later they will mate and be able to carry on the life cycle of a sea turtle.