Sea Turtles*
6th English Prose!
Warm Up*
• Have you heard about Turtles?
• Have you seen Turtles?
• Where do they live?
• Click here to watch Sea turtles
• Click here to watch Arribada
We have seen Tortoises in a zoo or a park. But, most of us
would not have seen a Sea turtle.
Is the sea turtle different from tortoise? Yes. They are relatives
but not the same. Why most of us would not have seen a sea
turtle? Because these reptiles (a species of animals that have
scaly skin and lay soft-shelled eggs on the land; includes lizards,
crocodiles also) live their entire life in the sea.
There are seven different types of marine or sea turtles in the
world. Out of seven, five are found in our Indian seas.
They are:
•The Olive Ridley - the smallest species, most common - 35 kgs
when fully grown.
•The Hawksbill
•The Green Sea Turtle
•The Loggerhead
•The Leatherback - the largest species - 700 kgs and 2.2 meters
in length.
1.The Olive Ridley
2.The Hawksbill
3.The Green Sea Turtle
4.The Loggerhead
5. The Leatherback
Sea turtles are much bigger than
most tortoises. They live their
life fully in oceans - but they
come to land (shore) to lay eggs.
Of the above five species, four
have become rare species in
India. The most common ones
are the Olive Ridleys, which can
be still seen on all sandy beaches
along our coasts.
Do you know?
In most parts of the world, Olive
Ridleys come ashore alone to lay
their eggs. However, Odisha is
one of the only three places in the
world where a phenomenon
known as ‘mass nesting’ or
Arribada takes place. On certain
nights during the nesting season,
thousands of female turtles come
ashore simultaneously to lay their
eggs on particular beaches.
How do female Olive Ridley turtles
lay their eggs?
•When - January to March
•Time – Night
•Where - On the shore
•Problem - Difficult to move with
their front flippers on land (though
it can swim easily without any effort
in the water). It has to pull and drag
itself with great effort on to the
sandy beach.
❑ How - It chooses a spot far from the
place where there are high tides. It
makes a hollow space 45cm deep
and lays about 100 eggs.
❑ Eggs - Shape and size of a tennis
ball.
❑ After laying the eggs, the turtle
closes the hollow space. Then it
hides the nest according to the
surroundings, by tossing sand on it,
with the help of its flippers. Nobody
can find the spot now because the
whole place looks the same now!
❑ Then the turtle returns to the sea.
❑ The eggs will hatch under
the warmth of the sun.
In many places
around the world,
local people follow
the turtle's footsteps
and find the way to
its nest, take away
the eggs for eating.
Other animals follow
the scent left behind by
the turtle - jackals,
domestic dogs and pigs dig
up the holes and eat the
eggs. Some eggs escape
from the animals that eat
other animals. These eggs
will open after 45-60 days.
The young animal that
hatches out from an egg is
called a hatchling. The
hatchlings have a sharp
razor-like blade at
the pointed end of its
nose, called "egg-tooth".
With the help of the blade,
it slits open the leathery
shell of the eggs. After
most of the eggs hatch,
the young turtles push
themselves up to come
out of the sand. From
there, they quickly move
to the sea.
The tiny hatchlings weigh
less than 20 grams
each. Many of them do not
even reach the sea, as they
have to fight their
predators - crabs, birds may
eat them. If they cross this
hurdle and reach the sea,
most of them will be eaten
by predators in the
sea, within the first few
days of their lives. So many
challenges for a turtle!
Scientists have estimated
that only 1 in 1000
hatchlings become an
adult. Even if 1 survived
from 1000 eggs, the species
is still surviving - how?
That is why the turtles lay
hundreds of eggs, maybe!
There is a very interesting
fact about female turtles -
the female hatchlings that
survive all the predators
and become adults swim
for many years in the open
ocean. They return to the
same beach where they
were born, to lay their own
eggs.
How do they manage to find
the spot by themselves
without anyone guiding
them, is a mystery of these
wonderful reptiles.
Sea turtles are one of the
most wonderful creatures
on our earth. They have
faced so many natural
predators for millions of
years - but still, they have
managed to survive.
But humans are also affecting their survival lately, almost
for the past fifty years. Humans have put the survival of
turtles in a serious danger.
There are factors affecting their survival:
1.Humans hunt them for meat.
2.Humans collect their eggs.
3.Accidentally gets trapped in motorboat nests.
4.Pollution.
5.Disposing plastics carelessly in the ocean.
6.Construction activities where turtles lay eggs.
We should systematically tackle these problems and remove
the activities that threaten the survival to ensure that
turtles will continue to live with us in the future.
Moral: Don’t disturb the nature, if nature disturbs!??
Evaluation*
Say True or False:-
1. Turtles are different from tortoises.
2. Turtles are sea animals.
3. There are seven kinds of sea turtles in the world.
4. Sea turtles are very small.
5. Turtles come ashore to lay eggs.
6. Sea turtles come to rest on land.
7. Olive Ridleys are the only sea turtles seen on Indian shores.
Thanks with Ramji
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