Sea Turtles
What do sea turtles eat?
Sea Turtles eat jellyfish, seagrass, seaweed, sea squirts, shrimp and crabs.
There are seven species of sea turtles, below are the seven and what they like to eat:
-
Loggerhead hatchlings are omnivores but adults are carnivores, eating crabs, whelks, and conchs.
-
Leatherback sea turtles like to eat invertebrates such as jellyfish and sea squirts.
-
Green Sea Turtles adults are herbivores and like to hang around coral reefs to scrape off seagrass and algae. Hatchlings, however, are omnivorous.
-
Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles like to eat meat with a strong preference for crab.
-
Hawksbill sea turtles have a bird-like beak that gives them their name but also allows them to access cracks on coral reefs to reach sea sponges.
-
Olive Ridley sea turtles eats jellies, sea cucumbers, fish, and a wide variety of other plants and animals.
-
Flatback sea turtles will eat everything from seaweed to shrimp and crabs.
All 7 species of sea turtle are considered threatened or endangered.
Sea Turtle Educational Video with Pinky Plankton
Downloadable worksheets about Sea Turtles
Sea turtles shells grow with them as they grow because their shells are attached to their spines. Unlike snails and hermit crabs, they do not need to change shells throughout their lives.
Leatherback sea turtles have many rows of teeth inside their mouths. Their primary food source is jellyfish so these rows of teeth help them to break down the jellyfish.
A group of eggs laid by a sea turtle is called a clutch.
Sea turtles can stay underwater for hours at a time!
Some sea turtles nest in larger groups to help reduce the amount of predators that can find their nests.
Sea turtles are reptiles because they are cold blooded but they also breathe air.
A baby sea turtle is called a hatchling.
Things you can do to help our Sea Turtles stay healthy
Don’t dig holes on the beach, and if you see a hole, fill it in. Our hatchling turtles can become trapped in these holes.
Turn your lights off at 10pm every night if you are beach front. Also do not use a flashlight on the beach at night, unless it has a red filter.
Don’t littler, and pick up any litter that you find.
-
When a hatchling turtle is making his or her way to the ocean, they are also imprinting the beach where they are born. This helps them remember where they came from so they can find the same beach later on in life.
-
The temperature of the sand where the eggs are is very important in determining if the sea turtles become boys or girls during their development. Warmer sand produced girl turtles while cooler sand produces boy turtles.
-
Sea turtles are vertebrates, because they have backbones.
Other Educational Pages
