Green Turtle facts and pictures
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Fact: It is thought that when it's time for a female sea turtle to lay her eggs, she'll return to the same beach where she was born.
Source: NEFSC Fish FAQ.

Fact: Green sea turtles are great travelers, and make long migratory trips back to their old nesting grounds. Every year, many green turtles make an arduous two-month swim from South America to the island of Ascension in the Atlantic, 1,242 miles away [that's 2,000 km]. The island of Ascension is very small, and even sailors with fancy equipment have difficulty finding it. But not the green sea turtles. They know right where to go!
Source: Planet Earth, by Jonathan Weiner, pages 47, 48.

Fact: It takes around 25 years for green sea turtles to reach sexual maturity.
Source: Office of Naval Research.


Image Source: Prue Simmons/ License under Creative Commons 2.0.

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Fact: Female green sea turtles do not nest annually, but about every three to six years.
Source: Crite, J. 2000. "Chelonia mydas" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web.

Fact: Male green sea turtles court and mate with the females close to the nesting beaches, and sometimes more than one male can court a single female.
Source: EuroTurtle.

Fact: The only time green sea turtles vocalize, is when they are mating.
Source: Crite, J. 2000. "Chelonia mydas" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web.


Image Source: Steve Jurvetson/ License under Creative Commons 2.0.

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Fact: After the mating season ends, female green sea turtles go ashore to dig nests and lay eggs. They can return to the shore to dig another nest, as often as every three days.
Source: Refugenet.org.

Fact: Under the cover of night, it takes a female green sea turtle an average of two hours to dig a single nest.
Source: Turtles.org.

A green sea turtle lays her eggs!

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