Endangered Ark

Green Sea Turtle

Chelonia mydas

Jack of Clubs

Art by Nicole ‘Thornwolf’ Dornsife

http://thornwolf.artspots.com

nicole.dornsife@gmail.com

California

The green sea turtle’s range spans through tropical and subtropical coral reefs, with two distinct populations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Their name is derived from their green body fat which gets its color from the algae they eat. Adult green sea turtles are herbivores while juveniles are carnivorous, feeding on jellyfish and other invertebrates. The average lifespan of green sea turtles is unknown, but it can take between 10-50 years for a turtle to reach maturity.

Male and female turtles are similar in appearance, the major difference being the length of their tails; males have longer tails while females have short, stubby ones. Males accompany the female turtles in their migration, sometimes as far as 800 miles, to the nesting area where they were born to lay their eggs on the beach. The female sea turtle uses her powerful flippers to dig a hole in the sand to lay her clutch of up to 100 eggs. She buries them to protect them from predators, and soon afterward, makes her way back to the ocean.
Two months later, the baby turtles dig their way out of the sand and return to the ocean, not returning to land again for up to a year.

The green sea turtle’s main predators are tiger sharks and man. Due to poaching, habitat destruction, and human interference, the wild population of sea turtles faced a drastic decline. Since sea turtles take so long to reach sexual maturity, even after the Endangered Species Act was passed, sea turtle populations did not see recovery until fairly recently, but efforts continue to ensure this species continues on into the future.