The Hawksbill Sea Turtle (Eretmochelys Imbricata)

1. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle (Eretmochelys Imbricata) By Bob Daas

3. Tapered head that looks like a bird’s beak. Color on its shell is brown with numerous splashes of yellow, orange, or reddish brown. Characteristics of the Hawksbill Sea Turtle

4. When they are young, their shell is heart shaped. Only sea turtle to have two pairs of frontal scales on its head and four pairs of overlapping horny plates on its shell. Characteristics of the Hawksbill Sea Turtle

5. They have four flippers, which allow them to move around in the ocean. A special feature of a pair of claws on each flipper. Characteristics of the Hawksbill Sea Turtle

6. Lives in tropical, shallow, and warm waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Usually found by coral reefs, salt water lagoons, and other shallow areas. The Hawksbill turtle has incredible migrations from their feeding areas near coral reefs to their nesting ground on tropical sandy beaches. Habitat/Migration

7. Hawksbill Turtle, an omnivore, eats mostly sea sponges. They also like to eat mollusks, marine algae, crustaceans, sea urchins, fish, and jelly fish. Diet

8. Their beak helps them get their meals by crushing, biting and tearing its favorite food, sponges. Diet

9. The Hawksbill turtle faces many obstacles including humans because they catch them for their beautiful shells to make jewelry or to eat there meat and eggs. Obstacles the Hawksbill Turtle faces

10. When the turtles are hatched at night, they want to follow the reflection of the moon to reach the ocean. Humans sometime interfere with their nature migration to the ocean. Humans who live on the beach sometimes leave their lights on at their house and the turtles go there instead. Obstacles the Hawksbill Turtle faces

11. It’s a lone turtle, only meeting other turtles to mate. Its brilliant shell turns different colors when the water temperature changes. Some of their food makes them toxic to be eaten but doesn’t make the turtle sick. The Hawksbill Turtle is unique in many ways

12. Hawksbill turtles mate every two to three years in shallow tropical waters. The mom buries the eggs in a deep pit, covers them with sand, and then she crawls away. It takes about sixty days for the turtles to hatch, usually at night. Reproduction

13. The orphaned newborn hatchlings desperately claw their way out of the buried nest under the cover of darkness. Then they franticly travel to the waters edge. Any hatchlings that don’t get to the water by daybreak get eaten by shorebirds or crabs. Survival of the fittest