leatherback_turtle

media type="youtube" key="cO_TBZgm1zY&hl=en&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" height="373" width="425" Leatherback Turtle Dermochelys Coriacea CHARACTERISTICS: The leatherback turtle is the largest sea turtle. It can grow up to 2.4 meters long(six feet) and 1.6 meters wide(four feet). The weight of the leatherback can be 400 kg(880 pounds). The shell is a thick leathery skin and it feels like hard rubber. DIET: The diet is mostly jellyfish, squids and other soft-bodied animals. Sometimes a leatherback eats plastic bags or fishing lines thinking it's some jellyfish. ENDANGERED: The leatherback is endangered worldwide because (evil) people poach their eggs for food (all 7 marine turtles are endangered). If action is not taking place we shall see the leatherback go to extinction. There are about 30,000 leatherback still on this planet. There were 115,000 still here in 1980. Please keep the ocean clean!!!!!!!!!!!!! REPRODUCTIVE: The leatherback lays its eggs in a hole in the sand and just swims back into the ocean. They lay 100 ping-pong sized eggs, every two - three years between March and July. The babies have to swim back by them selves and most times get eaten by seagulls or something like that. Sometimes they can also get trampled so watch where you step.

SOURCE:http://www.leatherback.org/ http://www.vanaqua.org/education/aquafacts/leatherbacks.html Renee C. Rebman, Turtles and Tortoises, New York, 2007