Order: Testudines

Family: Chelonidae

 

Size:  up to 50-75 cm in length.

Weight:  up to 50 kg

 

Key Features: The olive ridley turtle is the smallest of the marine turtles. The carapace of this turtle is olive coloured and relatively heart-shaped, whilst the undersurface is a greenish white. It can be distinguished from the closely related Kemp's ridley turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) by the possession of more than five bony plates, or scutes, running the length of the carapace; Kemp's ridley has only five.

 

Breeding: During one season a female may lay two to three clutches of eggs, returning to breed every few years. After around 50 to 60 days, the hatchlings emerge and make their chaotic dash to the sea.

 

Diet: carnivorous and feed on a wide variety of organisms including fish and molluscs; sometimes diving up to 150 metres in search of prey. Very little is known about the first years of life but juveniles probably spend a number of years floating on the ocean currents and feeding on planktonic organisms.

 

Habitat: The olive ridley turtle inhabits tropical waters, and adults are known to be pelagic, feeding in the open ocean. Nesting tends to occur on mainland shores, on wide beaches that are often close to river or estuary mouths.

 

Habits: Although they do also nest alone, olive ridleys are known for their remarkable mass nestings, when many thousands of females congregate on the same beach; the event is known as an 'arribada', which is Spanish for 'mass arrival'. Males and females migrate from the feeding grounds and mating occurs just offshore of the beach. Usually at night, and coinciding their nesting with the high tide, females haul out on their natal beach and lay clutches that typically contain around 110 to 120 eggs.

 

Conservation Status: Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Ripple, J. (1996). Sea Turtles. Voyager Press, Stillwater, USA.

 

Bivash, P., Choudhury, B.C. and Shanker, K. (1998) The Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) in Orissa: an urgent call for an intensive and integrated conservation programme. Current Science, 75(12): 1323 - 1328.

 

Shanker, K. (1999) Birth and Death. Sanctuary Asia, 1999: 10 - 14.

 

Photo Courtesy

Claudio Giovenzana. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.