Leatherback Seaturtle

Female sea turtles lay around 100 eggs in each nest. These eggs are not brittle like a chicken’s, but rather encased in a flexible, leathery shell

Like other sea turtles, they also travel great distances every two to three years to the beaches where they were born in order to reproduce in the coastal waters. Several times in one season, females come ashore at night to lay their eggs. .

Facts

Location

Reproducing

Leatherbacks have delicate, scissor-like jaws. Their jaws would be damaged by anything other than a diet of soft-bodied animals, so they feed almost exclusively on jellyfish.

*Leatherbacks are found in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, particularly in tropical regions.*They are strong swimmers and have been known to migrate thousands of miles across ocean basins.

Diet

Populations of leatherback sea turtles in the Indopacific crashed by more than 90 percent in the 1980s and 1990s.

Endangered

Hatchlings

*The leatherback is the largest sea turtle in the world, measuring as much as 7 feet in length and weighing as much as 2000 pounds. *Leatherbacks dive deeper than any other species of sea turtle.

The leatherback does not have a hard shell, but rather a leathery carapace composed of a mosaic of small bones covered by firm, rubbery skin with seven longitudinal ridges and numerous white spots.

Carapace

Leatherback Seaturtle