The Sea Turtle
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How does the sea turtle reproduce? | |||
| To help the males grasp on to shell of the females, they have enlarged claws on their front flippers. This goes for all species except the Leatherback. | |||
 | A few weeks after mating the females come ashore on a sandy beach. She will usually come ashore at night. When possible she will come during high tide. She drags herself up on the beach till she finds a spot that?s suitable for a nest. First she?ll use her front flippers to dig out a ?body pit?. Then she uses her hind flippers to dig a cavity to the eggs. The depth of the cavity depends on the length of her flippers. | ||
| Depending on species she?ll deposit between 50 and 200 eggs in the cavity. The eggs are soft-shelled and surrounded by thick, clear mucus, so they don?t break when they fall down in the cavity. Then using her back flippers she?ll cover the nest with sand. When the nest is covered she?ll drag herself back to the sea again. From a female leave the sea till she returns she can spend two or more hours at the beach. |  | ||
| Depending on species a female will lay between one and five clutches of eggs in a season. Most of these will be laid on the same beach, but some females actually visits more than one nesting beach in a season. | 1 2 | ||
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