#Seaturtle breathing full#

They often migrate long distances between foraging grounds and nesting beaches. All species of sea turtles exhibit delayed maturity and recent studies on loggerhead turtles estimate that they do not reach sexual maturity until 30+ years of age.Īlthough sea turtles live most of their lives in the ocean, adult females will return to land to lay their eggs.

The primary nester at the seashore is the loggerhead turtle along with a few green turtles and an occasional leatherback or Kemp's Ridley sea turtle. Hawksbills were documented nesting on Cape Hatteras for the first time in 2015, with two nests laid by a single female. While all five of these sea turtle species can be found in Seashore waters throughout the year, it is the female loggerhead and green turtles-and occassional leatherback and Kemp's ridley turtles-that nest on these beaches, which are considered to be the extreme northern limits of their nesting grounds. There are five species of sea turtles found along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore - the leatherback, hawksbill (rarely seen), Kemp's ridley, loggerhead and green. Sea turtles have flippers, whereas land and pond turtles have feet with claws. Visitors can tell the difference between a land or pond turtle and a sea turtle by their front limbs. They range in size from the smallest species weighing 75-100 pounds to the largest species weighing almost 2,000 pounds. Sea turtles, some of the largest living reptiles, are long-lived, cold-blooded, air breathing, migratory, and spend almost their entire lives in the sea.

#Seaturtle breathing full#

A couple of months later, the nest seems to boil over as tiny turtles struggle out of their shells, out of their nest, and, out across a beach full of hazards by the light of the moon to their new home - the ocean. The nesting process can take between 1-3 hours to complete. Once she covers the nest, this majestic reptile slowly makes her way back to the ocean using light cues. The sea turtle emerges from the ocean to make her way ponderously up the beach where, after crawling to a place she deems appropriate, she digs a hole with her back flippers to lay her eggs. Every year a cycle of life occurs on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore when female sea turtles return to the beaches where they were hatched to deposit eggs into a nest dug into the sand which will hatch to start the next generation of sea turtles.