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AOTW Fact File: Leatherback Sea Turtle

Nicole Anson
Sep 1, 2016
2 min read

This week's animal of the week is..... the Leatherback Sea turtle! They are very fascinating creatures and they're becoming extinct really fast. Here is some information about them.

Characteristics

Leatherback Sea Turtles are the largest and oldest of all sea turtle species. They have been around for more than 150 million years and survived the extinction of the dinosaurs. Leatherbacks range in size from 1.2 to 2.4 metres and weighs between 225 to 900 kilograms. The average adult Leatherback Sea Turtle measures from 1.5 to 1.8 metres and weighs from 270 to 360 kilograms.

Habitat

Leatherback Sea Turtles live in the ocean and have the widest distribution of all sea turtle species. They are found in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. In the Pacific Ocean, they are found as north as Alaska and south beyond the southern tip of New Zealand. In the Atlantic, as north as Norway and the arctic circle and as south to the tip of Africa. It may sound like a lot of places, but there aren't many left due to littering and illegal hunting (poaching).

Diet

Leatherback Sea Turtles eat soft-bodied organisms such as tunicates, cephalopods and their favourites, jellyfish. Many Leatherbacks die from eating litter like plastic bags and balloons because they mistake them for jellyfish.

Reproduction

Like other turtles, Leatherbacks lay eggs. They come ashore on a sandy beach to nest a few weeks after mating. Most other sea turtles nest during the warmest seasons of the year like Summer and Spring but not Leatherbacks. They nest during the coldest seasons like Autumn and Winter. They lay an average of 110 eggs per nest and an average of 2 to 8 nests per season.