Turtles around Tamarindo,Green and Olive Riddley were the common sea turtles we saw on our night patrols. I learned that a short tail indicates female and long male. It was especially surprising that the leatherback can be up to 3 meter long (taller than the average adult).
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From life to death and everything in between:The life cycle of a sea turtles starts as a soft pingpong ball shaped and sized egg. Along with 45 up to 150 other eggs in a nest up the beach the eggs begin to hatch and make their way to the ocean. Interestingly enough above 20 degrees Celsius creates a boy and under a girl. Global temperatures have a direct effect on the outcome of turtles genders.
There are about 5 mysterious years where scientist have not determined the whereabouts or reasoning for young sea turtles. After age 5 they are seen coming in and out of calm areas to the beaches in search for food and a mate. When the sperm is entered in the female she can hold on to it and use it at her leisure. A female turtle goes through the process of laying eggs about 3 times in her lifetime. The male turtle awaits their female as they make the thousand mile journey back to the beach her herself was hatched on. She emerges at night to avoid danger as alone as she was that long ago when she was born. The turtle begins digging a body whole for herself to nestle down away from predators. She then digs a deeper hole with just the back legs as a nest for her eggs. The process can take up to three hours and conditions such as dry sand can make it impossible for her and after multiple try she recedes back to the ocean. After 45 to 60 days her first set of eggs will hatch and she can be working on laying more. Out of the average 80 eggs laid only 40 will hatch. Out of he 40 only 20 will make it to the ocean, and in the end only 1 in 1000 eggs grow to being full size adults. |