The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle | Eating Habits

Kemps Ridley Sea turtles are one of the well-loved animals and that’s why there is a constant fight to save them from extinction. One of the ways that scientists have discovered to help this species from the brink of extinction is to get know them more as part of the ecosystem and how this affects their behavior and the fast decrease in their population.

One of the ways to know more about these creatures is to study their diet because most animal behaviors are dictated by the behavioral patterns of their preys as well. Most sea turtles eat different kinds of food according to their type. There are the leatherback sea turtles that enjoy eating jellyfish while some sea turtles eat grass. But for the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle the main food that they constantly look for are crabs particularly blue crabs or any form of crustacean that the can get a hold of, although they still include dead fish and shrimp.

These are all animals that can be found near shallow waters and that is basically the reason why so many Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles are always caught in nets and other fishing paraphernalia. Other organisms that make up the diet of these sea turtles are fish, sea cucumbers, diamondback terrapins, sea urchins, jellyfish, comb jellies, snails, clams, squid eggs, shrimp, insects and barnacles.

Through out the lives of Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles they are considered as carnivorous species although they also eat a mix of plant life, this includes algae, saragassum weed, seaweed and other aquatic plants. These turtle make sure that they use their strong beaks to crush the food the want to eat particularly crabs that have extremely sturdy shells.

Unlike other animals, the easting habits of these turtles do not change much as they get older. As hatchlings they tend to feed in deeper water where they find floating algae and other food debris among the plant life that they find floating around. This is because they are relatively weaker and they still have developed their own ability to find food.

As they get older, this is the time that they get the chance to swim to shallower waters where they get to choose most of their food. They are known to prefer crabs above anything else and that’s why they swim near place where there is an abundance of these species.

When the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle are scavenging for food this also makes them more vulnerable to other forms of threats because of the fact that fishing debris and other equipment are usually placed in these places. They are also become easy prey for curious on lookers that maybe interested in trading them as exotic animal pets in the black market.

There are endless threats to the lives of these Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles and that is why one of the ways that organizations have helped them is by making sure that they are not caught entangled on boat nets and other fishing materials. Using technology there have been equipment developed to prevent fishermen from catching them.