Green Sea Turtle (Hawaii)
TAXONOMY
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: Cheloniidae
Genus/Species: Chelonia mydas
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: Large, weighty sea turtle with a wide, smooth carapace, or shell. It is named not for the color of its shell, which is normally brown or olive depending on its habitat, but for the greenish color of its skin.
Length: Up to 5 ft (1.5 m)
Weight: Up to 700 lbs (317.5 kg)
DISTRIBUTION/HABITAT: Pacific, Above photo taken at Poipu beach Kauai but they are found trough out the entire Hawaiian archipelago.
Note: The Atlantic green turtle, is found off the shores of Europe and North America,
DIET: Herbivore, Seagrass and Algae. Juvenile green turtles, however, will also eat invertebrates like crabs, jellyfish, and sponges.
REPRODUCTION: Mature 25 at years.Green turtles, undertake lengthy migrations from feeding sites to nesting grounds, normally on sandy beaches. Nesting grounds are scattered throughout the entire Pacific region, including Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, the South Pacific, the northern coast of Australia, and Southeast Asia. Mating occurs every two to four years and normally takes place in shallow waters close to the shore. To nest, females leave the sea and choose an area, on the same beach used by their mothers, to lay their eggs. They dig a pit in the sand with their flippers, fill it with a clutch of 100 to 200 eggs, cover the pit and return to the sea, leaving the eggs to hatch after about two months.
Lifespan: Over 80 years in the wild
PREDATORS: Tiger Sharks. Juveniles returning to the sea are voraciously predated upon by crabs and sea gulls,
CONSERVATION: IUCN Endangered
Threatened by humans who kill them for their meat and eggs. Numbers are also reduced by boat propeller accidents, fishnet-caused drowning, and the destruction of their nesting grounds by human encroachment.
REMARKS: Like other sea turtles, the green turtle cannot pull its head into its shell.
Can swim at up to 35 mph and remain underwater up to 2 hours.
It is one of the few marine turtles known to leave the water other than at nesting times. C. mydas may be seen basking on sandy beaches warming themselves.
References
National Geographic
animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/green-tur...
12-3-15
Green Sea Turtle (Hawaii)
TAXONOMY
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: Cheloniidae
Genus/Species: Chelonia mydas
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: Large, weighty sea turtle with a wide, smooth carapace, or shell. It is named not for the color of its shell, which is normally brown or olive depending on its habitat, but for the greenish color of its skin.
Length: Up to 5 ft (1.5 m)
Weight: Up to 700 lbs (317.5 kg)
DISTRIBUTION/HABITAT: Pacific, Above photo taken at Poipu beach Kauai but they are found trough out the entire Hawaiian archipelago.
Note: The Atlantic green turtle, is found off the shores of Europe and North America,
DIET: Herbivore, Seagrass and Algae. Juvenile green turtles, however, will also eat invertebrates like crabs, jellyfish, and sponges.
REPRODUCTION: Mature 25 at years.Green turtles, undertake lengthy migrations from feeding sites to nesting grounds, normally on sandy beaches. Nesting grounds are scattered throughout the entire Pacific region, including Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, the South Pacific, the northern coast of Australia, and Southeast Asia. Mating occurs every two to four years and normally takes place in shallow waters close to the shore. To nest, females leave the sea and choose an area, on the same beach used by their mothers, to lay their eggs. They dig a pit in the sand with their flippers, fill it with a clutch of 100 to 200 eggs, cover the pit and return to the sea, leaving the eggs to hatch after about two months.
Lifespan: Over 80 years in the wild
PREDATORS: Tiger Sharks. Juveniles returning to the sea are voraciously predated upon by crabs and sea gulls,
CONSERVATION: IUCN Endangered
Threatened by humans who kill them for their meat and eggs. Numbers are also reduced by boat propeller accidents, fishnet-caused drowning, and the destruction of their nesting grounds by human encroachment.
REMARKS: Like other sea turtles, the green turtle cannot pull its head into its shell.
Can swim at up to 35 mph and remain underwater up to 2 hours.
It is one of the few marine turtles known to leave the water other than at nesting times. C. mydas may be seen basking on sandy beaches warming themselves.
References
National Geographic
animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/green-tur...
12-3-15