SEA TURTLES

GENERAL STATEMENT

• Live in warm waters
• Solitary creatures
• Ancient reptiles
• Human and non-human threats
• Undergo long migrations (up to 1,400 miles)

STAGE ONE

• Female adult comes way up onto the beach to avoid tides
• Uses back flippers to dig a hole in the sand
• Buries her clutch of eggs in the sand
• She immediately returns to the ocean

SECOND STAGE

• Eggs hatch after 45 to 55 days
• Hatchlings take one week to dig thmselves out of the sand
• Make their way to the ocean at night time
• only about 20 out of every 100 eggs ever hatch

THIRD STAGE

• Juvenile sea turtles swim alone in the ocean
• They feed on jellyfish, crabs, shrimp and other small sea animals
• After one year, they are the size of a dinner plate
• Male sea turtles never return to shore

FOURTH STAGE

• Sea turtles can grow to the size of large dinner tables
• After 20 years, the adult female can produce young
• She returns to her own nesting spot to lay eggs
• The life cycle noe starts all over again

CONCLUSION

• Sea turtles are endangered.
• They must be protected so that they do not become extinct.