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Maputaland: Kosi Bay Tourism: Sea Turtles

Turtle Tours - During turtle season (November to February) these amazing creatures, leatherback and loggerhead turtles; come back to the same place every year, after crossing oceans, to lay their eggs. It is an unforgettable experience and privilege to witness a giant leatherback (nearly 2 metres in length) or loggerhead turtle as she performs this miracle of nature.

When the female turtles come ashore to nest, they choose beaches which have particular types of conditions. They are generally free from rocks and have a gentle slope. The turtle emerges from the ocean at night, usually close to the high tide and crawls up the beach until she is above the high tide mark. There she selects a site free from wood, vegetation and other debris and digs a pit for her body. She does this by throwing sand with powerful strokes of her front flippers until her body sits in the hole created.

Leatherback Turtle

Leatherback sea turtles are the largest living marine reptiles and live almost their entire lives at sea. The only times that they are on land is when the female turtles lay eggs, and when hatchlings emerge from the nest and make their way to ocean.

Leatherback turtles are different from other sea turtles in that they have a soft, cartilaginous shell rather than a hard bony one. It is from the appearance of the shell that the "Leatherback" name comes. They have a more streamlined shape and larger flippers than other sea turtles, reflecting their more migratory and pelagic lifestyle.

Leatherbacks are also the reptile world's deepest-divers. Individuals have been discovered to be capable of descending to depths deeper than 1,200 meters. They are also the fastest reptiles on record. The 1992 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records has the leatherback turtle listed as having achieved the speed of 9.8 meters per second (35.28 kilometers per hour) in the water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leatherback_Sea_Turtle

http://www.leatherback.org/

 
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Newsflash

Leatherback Turtle Facts

* The leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, is the largest turtle and fourth largest reptile.
* Leatherback turtles inhabit the deep waters of the world’s oceans. They migrate between cold waters and tropical seas every 1 to 3 years.
* Male leatherbacks never leave the water. Female leatherbacks come ashore to lay eggs and nest. They lay clutches of roughly 100 eggs on warm, sandy beaches but don’t nest continuously. Female leatherbacks nest once every 8 to 15 days.
* The leatherback turtle has a round, flat body and two pairs of flippers like all sea turtles. The leatherback is the only sea turtle not to have a shell. Instead of a hard bony plate, the leatherback has rubbery skin.
* Adults leatherbacks weigh 700 kg (1540 pounds) and measure 2 m (6.5 feet) in length. The largest leatherback ever recorded weighed 918 kg (2020 pounds) and measured 2.6 m (8.5 feet).
* Leatherback turtles feed on jellyfish and are a natural control for the jellyfish population.
* The leatherback is an endangered species and it is the last surviving member of the Dermochelys species.

 
 
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