Earth & kids

The sea turtles are ocean creatures and the females are the ones that come on land to lay eggs. They have flippers to help them swim and a hard shell both on their back and also underneath to protect their soft bodies from harm and predators. They can deal with other animals attacking, and falter without fail when it comes to avoiding their human captors.

Sea turtles are gentle creatures but can be dangerous when they are threatened. There are 7 species of sea turtles and they like to live and swim in warm waters. Scientists believe that sea turtles have been around since the time of dinosaurs which would translate to about 250 million years ago.

Compared to the land turtles, these sea turtles tend to have a flatter body to adapt to the water environment. If you’re lucky, you see them gliding gracefully through the water when they swim. Curiously, they also have this strange twist of returning to the area where they were born when laying their eggs. They will swim great distances to get to a specific spot on a specific beach where they dig a hole for their eggs.

A sea turtle egg looks a little like a small white ping pong ball and a female will lay more than a hundred of these at one time. Once she’s done, she will cover the hole and drag herself back to the water. The young sea turtles are left to fend for themselves when they hatch. Aside from humans catching, they are excellent prey for predators like crabs, birds and other animals. Very few from one batch will make it to adulthood.

They live on shrimp, algae, seaweed, and mollusks. Of the 7 species the most endangered is the Kemp’s Ridley which is also the smallest of all sea turtles, although they are all considered to be endangered.  The largest is the leatherback and can weigh as much as 700 kilos. These sea turtles need protection from hunters, predators, pollution, and fishing nets.