By Annemarie Kramer
Latin name:
Dermochelys Coriacea
Geographic Area:
Worldwide
Weight:
Up to 900 kg (2'000 lbs) and above
Size:
Up to 260 cm (8.5 ft)
Distribution:
Circumglobally in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones. This species has been sighted in water temperatures as low as 7,5° Celsius (44° Fahrenheit). The leatherback turtle is far better adapted to cold water than other sea turtle species and therefore has a far wider distribution. The nesting beaches are located in tropical and subtropical areas. This species is pelagic, which means the turtles live offshore and only come close to the shores for mating and nesting. They are known to be the most migratory and widely distributed of all the sea turtles; journeys between 200 and 1000 km (120-620 miles) are quite average and voyages up to 6000 km (3700 miles) have been observed.
Nesting behavior:
Little is known about the nesting behaviour of the Leatherback. Every two to three years the female comes ashore and lays eggs four to five times in the same area, but not necessarily on the same beach. Females lay an average of 81 eggs. After 6 to 8 weeks the young turtles hatch and spend the first years of their lives at the open sea. What they do is unknown, but scientists think that they stay in zones where they find salps and jellyfish to feed on.
Leatherback turtles spend almost their whole life in the open ocean and that is why very little is known about their development. They probably become sexually mature between the age of 8 and 15 years.
Food sources:
Leatherback turtles feed on invertebrates that they find in the open ocean; these are salps, jellyfish, crabs and small fish, sometimes algae are ingested with them. What the young sea turtles feed on is not known yet, they probably stay in the open ocean and find their food there. Contrary to other sea turtles, leatherbacks do not stay within certain feeding grounds, they continously migrate through the ocean and occasionally come close to shore. They dive very deep on their search for food.
Special remarks:
Leatherback turtles can dive down to 1300 m (3900 feet).
Unlike other sea turtles, Leatherback turtles have a leathery skin instead of a bony carapace, and this is where they get their name from. The leatherback turtle is the only reptile which is able to regulate its body temperature and this is why they can be found in water which is as cold as 0° to 15° Celsius (32° to 59° Fahrenheit). Nevertheless these turtles can keep their body temperature around 25° Celsius (77° Fahrenheit). They have a thick, isolating layer of fat under their skin, a big body volume and a high metabolic rate; all this helps them to keep their temperature warm. In the limbs of their body, the flippers, they have a special arrangement of blood vessels that permits to warm up the cool blood flowing from the extemities back into the body. |