Sea Turtle Life Cycle (Animation)

[Music] flatback turtles only breed and nests in Australia and nowhere else in the world olive ridley turtles are found around the world but the population breeding in western cape york are endangered and scientists are worried they might disappear if we don't look after them [Music] male and female turtles gather in groups to mate out at sea close to the nesting beaches where they were born female turtles will mate once every 2 to 8 years depending on the age and environmental conditions in the weeks after mating the female turtles crawl up the beach and find a spot to dig out an egg chamber in the sand to lay their eggs the whole process can take up to an hour each female turtle will come back after around 2 weeks and lay anywhere from 2 to 5 clutches of eggs in one nesting season most turtles lay more than 100 eggs in each nests but flat bats only lay 50 to 60 eggs these eggs are bigger than the eggs of any other turtle species [Music] eggs will hatch around seven weeks after they are laid when the sound temperature drops the hatchlings know when it's time to emerge from the nest by coming out together hatchlings can overwhelm would-be predators a single hatchling would be an easy target together they crawl as fast as they can down towards to see the babies don't have a very good eyesight so they follow the slope of the beach why crests of waves and the moonlight to find the water once they reach to see the hatchlings begin a swimming frenzy that can last several days until they reach currents that take them far away from the beaches and lurking predators the first years of a turtles life will be met with drifting ocean currents and eating surface plankton their journey for the following 10 years is described as the Lost years it is estimated that only one in 1,000 Turtles reaches adulthood after about a decade juvenile Turtles reappear in coastal waters to feed flat back turtles are unique to Australia and spend their entire lives in shallow seas adult olive ridley turtles will return to their breeding area when they're about 13 years of age the turtles that do make it to breeding age return to the area they were born in and the cycle begins again you [Music] you

Channel: CapeYorkNRM

Views: 282,538

Rating: 4.6644115 out of 5

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Id: -zsymWRHEKU

Length: 4min 8sec (248 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 29 2017