The Leatherback Sea Turtle | Eating Habits

The adult Leatherback sea turtle has a diet which consists of jellyfish and other soft bodied animals. As the jellyfish is made mostly of water, it is considered a very low energy food. This means that a turtle has to consume a lot of jellyfish to sustain it. The Leatherback sea turtles are said to help the ecological system by controlling the jellyfish population.

The Leatherbacks migrate over great distances to feed. As jellyfish are found in all sorts of oceans and seas, the turtle has an immense spread of hunting ground. This makes leatherheads the most widely distributed sea turtle. The Leatherback turtles have been found in areas ranging from New Zealand and Australia, through Africa, and all the way to Canada and United States. It is the only reptile that found in the far northern locations.

Leatherbacks are designed to easily eat soft bodied animals like jellyfish and comb jellies. A Leatherback doesn’t have teeth; instead they have points on their jaws which help them with tearing the soft jelly like organisms. The Leatherback’s throat has spines that point inwards. These spines help the turtle with swallowing food.

One of the main problems with the turtles feeding is the debris that is thrown by the people into the sea. The biggest threat to the turtles is plastic bags. Floating on water, a plastic bag looks like a jellyfish to the turtle. It can cause great harm to the reptile. Due to lack of nutrient, the turtle grows weak. This can lead to reproduction problems, sickness and death. Urban coastlines are most likely to have plastic debris.

As only the female Leatherbacks come on shores to lay eggs, with males spending their entire lives at sea, it is difficult to estimate the amount of food that an adult turtle consumes. However on average, a young, juvenile Leatherback consumes jellyfish which weighs twice as much as the turtle itself.
Adults are also known to eat crabs etc. It is yet unknown how they eat such organisms and whether such food is digested or not.

Hatchlings survive on nutrients accumulated from the egg until they reach open ocean waters.