Leatherback sea turtle By Lev

The animal I am doing my project on is t...

The animal I am doing my project on is the leatherback sea turtle. I chose it because I was facinated when I looked into the National Geographic website. I lerned thet it is the largest turtle in the world. was amazed that the animal was living in the dinosaur era.

The leatherback weighs 300-500kg and is 1.5m in length The largest turtle weighed 1 000kg and is 3m in length

The leatherback weighs 300-500...

The leatherback feels rubbery to touch, a...

The leatherback feels rubbery to touch, and has a leather-like skin that covers its shell, while all the other sea turtles have a hard, bony shell. That's why the name is called "leatherback."

The leatherback's carapace, which is t...

The leatherback's carapace, which is the upperside of the shell, is dark or grey and has white or pale spots. There are ridges along the carapace.

The turtle has flippers without claws. T...

The turtle has flippers without claws. The leatherback's front flippers are used for swimming. Its hind flippers are used for steering.

The leatherback's plastron, which is the underside of the turtle, is whitish to black and is marked with 5 ridges.

The leatherback's plastron, which is t...

The leatherbacks has a streamlin...

The leatherbacks has a streamlined body and powerful front flippers that lets them swim thousands of kilometres over open ocean.

Like all other reptiles, t...

Like all other reptiles, the leatherback is cold-blooded, but maintains warm body temperatures thanks to large body size, active blood flow, and thick layers of fat.

The leatherback can hold their breath for an hour that is important for swimming long distances.

The leatherback can hold their brea...

The leatherback's throat and esophagus has spines to help it swallow slippery prey.

The leatherback's throat and esophag...

The leatherback has a pink spot on i...

The leatherback has a pink spot on its head that lets sunlight to reach its penial gland. The gland signals day length and seasons that is important for migration.

The leatherbacks live in tropical waters of Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans.

The leatherbacks live in tropic...

They dive up to 300 metres and sometimes 1.2 kilometres deep.

They dive up to 300 metres and sometim...

The leatherbacks' habitat is cold water below 4℃.

The leatherbacks' habitat is cold wat...

Only they stay active at a low temperature compared to other reptiles.

Only they stay active at a low temperatu...

The leatherbacks feed on soft-bodied invertibrates. Their primary diet is jellyfish.

The leatherbacks feed on soft-bodi...

The leatherbacks can also eat sea squirts, tunicates, squid, and other mollucks.

The leatherbacks can also eat sea squir...

Eating

Eating other, hard bodied animals would damage their delicate jaws.

Eating other, hard bodied anima...

Mating of leatherbacks occur in the ocean.

After mating, the female at night cli...

After mating, the female at night clims onto a beach. There, she lays 100-150 eggs, then covers them with sand, flattens it with her body weight to save the eggs from predators, and heads back to sea.

The eggs take about two months to hatch.

The hatchlings are 5 to 8 centimetres long.

The hatchlings are 5 to 8 centimetr...

Only a few of them would return will rea...

Only a few of them would return will reach the ocean, survive, and grow to adulthood because of predators like seabirds, racoons, sharks, and large fish.

The sex of hatchlings depend on temperatu...

The sex of hatchlings depend on temperature of the nest. If the temperature is 30℃, a mix of females and males are born. If the the temperature is higher than 30℃, the females are born. If the temperature is lower than 30℃, the males are born.

It takes 15-25 years to reach maturity.

1. Only 1 in 1 000 leatherbacks survive to adulthood.

1. Only 1 in 1 000 leatherbacks survive ...

2. The leatherback has the longe...

2. The leatherback has the longest migration among sea turtles. They migrate up to 10 000 kilometres for searching jellyfish, for breeding, and for breeding and laying eggs.

3. The leatherbacks always migrate to the beach they were born in.

3. The leatherbacks always migrate ...

4. The leatherback's life span is 100 years.

4. The leatherback's life span is 1...

5. More than 50% of dead leatherbacks have be...

5. More than 50% of dead leatherbacks have been found with plastic bags and cellophane in their stomach because they mistake a plastic bag as jellyfish.

6. The leatherback are put in the IUCN R...

6. The leatherback are put in the IUCN Red list of Threatned Species (IUCN is International Union for Conversation of Nature).