Also known as lute turtle, leathery turtle, the wonderful leatherback turtle is the biggest turtle existing. They can grow up to 1.8 meters long and can weight up to 550 kilograms. Their front flippers can even grow to 2.7 meters. Now, that's a pretty impressive size if you compare it to the common household turtle pet ! Despite his incredible length, you might wonder, what makes this turtle different from the other species ? Actually, you'll be shock when you learn about these things... Let's dive into it !
Lute turtle are going extinct ! 😥
Unfortunately, these species are endangered. This situation as been going on for more than 200 years now. The most common reason is because of Illegal trade overharvesting of eggs. Also, these turtle are slaughtered for their eggs, meat, skin and are capture from poacher. The use of turtle for decoration is trend in the Asian culture In certain.
Thankfully, you have some religion like the Seri people, tribes from the Mexican state of Sonora, who celebrate the turtle with a ceremonial event and after release them alive in the ocean. For what meaning ? Find out below !
If you're interested to learn everything you need to know about theses turtles, click here
The important symbolism of the leatherback!
Celebrating is way more friendly than killing, don't you think? The reason why they emphasize ceremonial is that because of their shell, the turtle is a very important symbol of protection and perseverance. This ideology is not only for tribes, though. Even without religion involves, you see a lot of women nowadays wearing a turtle necklace in symbol of the perseverance trough thought situation and for, their beautiful looks of course. It's really like a lucky charm !
Where do leatherback turtles live ?
You can find them all across the globe by subpopulations. Here are the place to find them :
Atlantic subpopulation :
They can be found as far in the north of the North Sea as in the Cape of Good Hope in the south of the Atlantic Ocean.
For the west Atlantic side, you can find them as far north in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Quebec, down to the wonderful beach of French Guiana !
For the east Atlantic side, you can find these turtle species on the equatorial line like Gabon, and going down to the Cape of Good Hope.
Pacific subpopulation :
In the eastern Pacific side, they tend to visit more the in the Northern Hemisphere. Going up to the north Canadian's beach of British-Colombia, then swimming down along the coasts to California. The other turtles go more to the South American coast, such as down to panama.
For the western Pacific group, You have a group up in the South China Sea, on the Malaysian coast to be more specific. The other group tends to stay more in the equatorial line places, like Indonesia and the beaches of the Solomon Islands.
Indian Ocean subpopulation :
The more common place to find the leatherbacks turtle are in Sri Lanka and the Nicobar Islands.
It's safe to say, you must eat right if you want to have that much of energy to swim between some great distance like this. Find out about their awesome nutrition below !
What do leatherback turtles eat ?
On earth, these turtle or more likely to eat snails. In the ocean they mostly feed themselves with ctenophores and cnidarians species, they actually play a very important role into helping to control the jellyfish population. They can also eat small crustaceans, fishes and sea urchins ! Now this looks great on the menus, just the right essentials you need to live forever. But can they really live that long ? We will answer this question for you right now !
How long do leatherback sea turtles live ?
Based on scientist researcher, their life longevity is estimate to approximately 45 to 50 years. But there's one thing to keep in mind, a turtle do not continue to age once their bodies reach the maturity level. So theoretically, they might be able to live forever, and that is if, they don't get killed by a predator, diseases or injuries. Pretty impressive, don't you think ? Well there's even more impressive than this, this species has his name in the world Guinness record for...
Does he really have a Guinness World Record ?
Yes, the leatherback turtle has the world record for the fastest-moving non-avian reptiles, with a record of 35.28 km/h (21.92 mph) swimming speed.
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