The Loggerhead Sea Turtle | Eating Habits

The Loggerhead sea turtle lives in areas such as bays, lagoons, salt marshes, creeks, ship channels, and even at the mouths of large rivers. Loggerheads find foods on the ship wrecks, coral reefs and rocky places. They like to feed in shallow water along the Atlantic, pacific and Indian oceans, coastal bays and estuaries.

Loggerhead sea turtles feed on molluscs, crustaceans, fish, crabs, shrimps and Portuguese Man o’ War. Squids is one of the kinds of molluscs belongs to cephalopods that are best food of Loggerhead sea turtle. Octopus and cuttlefish are cephalopods too and are plenty in the bottom of the ocean. But most turtles eat jellyfish. Jellyfish are high in proteins. Abundant numbers of jellyfish can trigger a breeding and feeding process of Loggerhead sea turtle. Most turtle meets where the food is abundant and in most cases breeding occurs. Loggerheads are carnivore

Other species like crabs are also one of the foods Loggerhead eats. Crabs are generally covered with exoskeleton and armed with claws. Nevertheless it doesn’t give any difficulty for the Loggerhead sea turtle. The beak-like mouth will just crush any crustacean the turtle eats.

There are kinds of jellyfish that are edible for humans. Humans eat jellyfish and benefits a rich in protein nutrients. The protein serves us the fuel or energy of our body. Same goes with the Loggerhead turtle. Shrimps are caught in vast fishnet and shrimps are also food for the Loggerhead some Loggerhead traps in fish nets used by fisherman in catching large numbers of shrimps. Good thing the government gives a specific net (Turtle Excluder Device) for unwanted turtles that might be caught during fishing.

Loggerheads loves to stay at the bottom of the sea and they sometimes scavenge fish and other fish parts but actually they are not fish eaters. They really don’t feed thru great numbers of fish. With its claws on the forelimbs and back, Loggerhead sea turtle manage to dig the sea beds for their prey. Clams and shells are often found on the seabed and they are also the favorite foods for Loggerhead.

Adult Loggerhead sea turtles eat almost same weight of their body. Loggerhead cannot sense which is plastic and which jellyfish is. Huge numbers of plastic garbage thrown in the ocean can give dangers to wildlife. Loggerheads eat even plastic twines as it looks like a jellyfish. Plastics are not biodegradable and can cause digestion problem. It can lead to fatalities if mass amount were taken. Good thing Loggerhead sea turtles feed mostly at the bottom of the ocean that left them to eat some plastics floating at sea surface.

This animal is one of the endangered species and is about to extinct. Scientist found outs that a hundred numbers of plants and small sea creatures hitch a ride at the back of the Loggerhead turtles to find foods and habitats that are abundant. Endangering them will endanger the species that go travels with Loggerhead on their journey of finding foods.