Heron Island, located on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, just on the Tropic of Capricorn is the breeding ground for two of the world’s largest populations of green sea turtles and loggerhead sea turtles. The green turtle is also known as the Chelonia mydas, green turtle, black turtle, or the Pacific sea turtle. This particular species of turtle is found in the Cheloniidae family. 60,000 and more female Chelonia mydas turtles swim thousands of kilometres from their feeding grounds in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Torres Strait and the West Pacific, to this family sized island to lay their eggs. The loggerhead sea turtle in other words known as the Coretta Coretta, is an oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a
Billy's Tarpon Turtle serves Carribean-American fare with a focus on seafood recipes. Guests can stop in for lunch and dinner and enjoy the indoor, mission-style seating, or take their meals out on the waterside deck that overlooks Tarpon lake. The restaurant includes a dock with 16 slips for those who want to come via the lake. There's also an indoor/outdoor bar.
The ornate box turtle is a extremely common species of turtle that lives throughout the United States. The turtles can be easily recognized by their dark brown shell with bright yellow markings. Almost every box turtle is unique in marking, from yellow to orange spots on their body to the different patterns on their shell. The male and female box turtle are distinguishable by their eye color and tail size. Male ornate box turtles have red eyes and longer tails, while females have brown eyes and shorter tails. These turtles have a interesting life style because they usually live their entire life's within only a few acres. The turtles start out the day basking in the sun. from there they go out hunting for food. Ornate box turtles move and hunt
The Graptemys caglei, also known as the Cagle’s Map Turtle, is an endangered turtle species found in San Antonio, Texas and along the Guadalupe River. It identifies easily by the pattern on its shell which resembles an aerial view topography, as well as its spiked shell edges, which are not as sharp as other map turtles of the same genus. Although the Cagle’s Map Turtle has natural predators pose a threat to the individual turtles’ lives, the predators are not a greater threat than habitat disturbances created by humans. Unfortunately, this species suffered a significant drop in population since the mid-1970 through changes in its habitat disallow support of a larger population of the turtles(van Dijk, P. P., 2011).
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Achieve3000, August 7, 2015). A rare leatherback sea turtle was found on a South Carolina beach in March 2015. The enormous reptile weighed 476 pounds (216 kilograms). It was spotted on the Yawkey-South Island Reserve in Georgetown County. The creature was brought to the South Carolina Aquarium. Workers named her Yawkey. She was treated with fluids, antibiotics, and vitamins. She was the first leatherback to be found alive in South Carolina. Caretakers were eager to see her returned to the sea.
The green sea turtle occurs throughout tropical and subtropical oceans and is among the largest of the hard-shelled sea turtles growing to as much as 440 pounds and four feet in length. The breeding populations in Florida were listed as endangered in 1978 (43 FR 32800 32811, July 28, 1978) whereas all other populations were listed as threatened (NOAA 2015h). There is a proposal for identification of a North Atlantic green sea turtle distinct population that would be listed as threatened, continuing its current listing status near New York (80 FR 51763 51764, August 26, 2015). They are found in the shallow waters (except during migration) of shoals, bays, lagoons reefs, and inlets, often where submerged aquatic vegetation exists, from Maine south to Florida, and throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea (USFWS 2015n, 2015o; NOAA 2015e). Green sea turtles nests are not present in New York; however, they occasionally are found stranded on or near the shore (NYSDEC 2015ad). Breeding takes places in subtropical to tropical oceans every two, three, or four years between June and September, with peak nesting in June and July (NOAA 2015h; USFWS 2015u). Hatching usually occurs at night, and many green sea turtle hatchlings seek refuge and food in masses of floating sea plants (USFWS
Some species may see increases from declines of loggerhead sea turtles. Loggerhead turtles are species generalists and compete with other carnivorous predators whose diets overlap with theirs (Bjorndal 2003). Juvenile loggerheads and Kemp’s ridleys in waters around Long Island have substantial diet overlap and a decline in loggerhead sea turtles may reduce the amount of competition for prey, allowing the Kemps ridleys access to more
Chelonia mydas usually stay around the coastline, islands, bays, and protected shores. Green sea turtles are rarely seen on the land. The female turtles use United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hawaii beaches to lay their eggs (“Sea Turtle Conservancy”).
Like all turtle species, human predation and collecting is a serious danger to their survival: Loggerhead eggs and the turtles themselves, are sold on the black market for food and their shells are used to make items such as boat paddles and helmets in some places (Hawkes, 2016). The black market is an illegal shop were people sell things that are prohibited to sell (Hawkes, 2016). They usually held in secret places where no one knows (Hawkes, 2016). Around 65% of Loggerhead Turtles are killed each year because of the black market (Nobs, 2004). People kill these poor, harmless animals just for profit and it need to stop (Marine Bio, 2015). But there e actually is no way to stop black markets, you can reduce them but you can’t stop it. This is because black markets are an idea and once an idea is out, you can’t reverse it and take it back. (Holden, 2014). If you were to stop this, the government of every state would need to basically go round their whole city/state and check every corner where there may be a black market, because if nothing gets done we will loose our precious creatures (Queach,
Baby red-eared slider turtles are brightly colored. With bold patterns on their yellowish under shells. Which serve as a warning to predators. the bright colors of skunks and other animals. They signal that the animals will spray nasty chemicals. In contrast, the turtle's colors warn largemouth bass. that the baby turtle will actively defend itself. When a bass gulps down a turtle, the feisty baby laws and bites. Forcing the bass to spit it out. To avoid a similar painful experience. The bass will avoid other baby red-eared slider turtles. The turtle loses its bright colors as it grows too big. For a Bass's afternoon
The loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta, is a threatened species with a highly migratory behavior and shifting habitat requirements depending on maturity (NMFS and USFWS 1998). The loggerhead nesting grounds are typically in warm temperate regions (NMFS and USFWS 1998).
Turtles have been on this earth for more than 200 million years. They evolved before mammals, birds, crocodiles, snakes and even lizards. The earliest turtles had teeth and could not retract their heads, but other than this, modern turtles are very similar to their ancestors. Several species of turtle can live to be over a hundred years old, including the American Box Turtle.
The seven different types of sea turtles live all around the world and play an important role in maintaining all the marine ecosystems they are a part of. The main part they do is maintain the health of seagrass beds and coral reefs which are home
By comparing the observed heterozygosity of two Blanding’s turtle populations, it was determined that Area 1 had significantly greater observed heterozygosity than Area 2. The lower observed heterozygosity found in Area 2 may have been caused by the founder effect, resulting in a loss of genetic variation. The founder effect occurs when a new population is established by a small group of migrants from a larger population. The founder effect involves a random sampling of alleles during the reproduction of consecutive generations; when a small population is isolated, it may amplify the loss of genetic variation as individuals may become increasingly genotypically similar after each subsequent generation. Eventually, the alleles may become fixed
The Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle is one of the first turtle species ever discovered in Hawaii. The can be spotted
Sea turtle hatchlings are now having trouble finding their way to the sea because of all the lights from buildings that are built on the coast. They get disoriented when they are born and will wander in the wrong way away from the sea. This leads them to predators that live inland or will even cause the turtle to become dehydrated and die. Humans are also building coastal armoring that is blocking female turtles from reaching a suitable nesting habitat. This is a severe problem in Florida where they have many coastal rock elevations and sand bags. Where all this beach development is occurring thousands of sea turtles are trying to nest. Beach dredging is also having a direct effect on sea turtle's trying to nest. If the sand is too impacted or is drastically different from native beach sediment, the mother will have trouble creating the