What do sea turtles eat?

Content

• Sea turtle characteristics
• Types of feeding of sea turtles
• What do carnivorous sea turtles eat
• What Herbivorous Sea Turtles Eat
• What omnivorous sea turtles eat

Sea turtles (Chelonoidea superfamily) are a group of reptiles that have adapted to living in the ocean. For this, as we will see, they have a series of characteristics that allow them to swim for very long periods of time that make life in the water easier.

THE sea ​​turtle feeding it depends on each species, the areas of the world they inhabit and their migrations. Want to know more? In this article by PeritoAnimal we answer all your questions about what sea turtles eat.

Sea turtle characteristics

Before we know what sea turtles eat, let's get to know them a little better. For this, we must know that the chelonian superfamily includes only 7 species worldwide. They all have a number of common features:

• carapace: Turtles have a bony shell made up of ribs and part of the spine. It has two parts, the backrest (dorsal) and the plastron (ventral) that are joined laterally.
• fins: Unlike land turtles, sea turtles have fins instead of feet and their body is optimized to spend many hours swimming.
• Habitat: sea turtles are mainly distributed in the oceans and warm seas. They are almost entirely aquatic animals that live in the ocean. Only females step on land to lay eggs on the beach where they were born.
• Life cycle: the life cycle of sea turtles begins with the birth of newborns on the beaches and their introduction into the sea. The exception of the Australian sea turtle (Natator depression), young turtles have a pelagic phase that usually exceeds 5 years. Around this age, they reach maturity and begin to migrate.
• Migrations: sea ​​turtles perform great migrations between the feeding zone and the mating zone. Females, moreover, travel to the beaches where they were born to lay eggs, even though they are usually close to the mating zone.
• Senses: like many marine animals, turtles have a highly developed sense of ear. Furthermore, their life is more developed than that of land turtles. Also noteworthy is his great ability to orient himself during his great migrations.
• sex determination: the temperature of the sand determines the sex of the chicks when they are inside the egg. Thus, when temperatures are high, females develop, while low temperatures favor the development of male turtles.
• Threats: all sea turtles except Australian sea turtle (Natator depression) are threatened worldwide. The Hawksbill and the Kemp Turtle are in critical danger of extinction. The main threats of these marine animals are ocean contamination, human occupation of beaches, accidental capture and the destruction of their habitats due to trawling.

Types of feeding of sea turtles

The turtles don't have teeth, use the sharp edges of their mouth to cut food. Therefore, the feeding of sea turtles is based on plants and marine invertebrates.

However, the answer about what turtle eats it's not that simple, as not all sea turtles eat the same thing. We can even differentiate three types of sea ​​turtles depending on your diet:

• carnivores
• Herbivores
• omnivorous

What do carnivorous sea turtles eat

In general, these turtles feed on all kinds of marine invertebrates, such as zooplankton, sponges, jellyfish, crustacean molluscs, echinoderms and polychaetes.

These are carnivorous sea turtles and their food:

• Leather turtle (Dermochelys coriacea): and the biggest turtle in the world and its backrest can reach 220 cm in width. Their diet is based on jellyfish of the class Scyphozoa and zooplankton.
• Kemp's Tortoise(Lepidochelys Kempii): This turtle lives near its back and eats all kinds of invertebrates. Occasionally, it may also consume some algae.
• Australian sea turtle (Natator depression): is endemic to the continental shelf of Australia and, although they are almost exclusively carnivorous, they can also eat small amounts of algae.

If you're interested in knowing more about the feeding of the great animals of the ocean, don't miss this other article about what the whale eats.

What Herbivorous Sea Turtles Eat

Herbivorous sea turtles have a serrated horny beak that allows them to cut the plants they feed on. Concretely, they consume algae and marine phanerogamic plants such as Zostera and Oceanic Posidonia.

There is only one species of herbivorous sea turtle, the green turtle(Chelonia mydas). However, this sea ​​turtle hatchling or young also consume invertebrates, that is, in this period of life they are omnivorous. This difference in nutrition may be due to an increased need for protein during growth.

What omnivorous sea turtles eat

Omnivorous sea turtles feed on invertebrate animals, plants and some fish who live under the sea. In this group we can include the following species:

• common tortoise(caretta caretta): this turtle feeds on all types of invertebrates, algae, marine phanerogams and even eats some fish.
• olive turtle(Lepidchelys olivacea): is a turtle present in tropical and subtropical waters. Your diet varies depending on where you are.
• Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata): The young individuals of this sea turtle are fundamentally carnivores. However, adults include algae in their normal diet, so they can be considered omnivores.

If you want to read more articles similar to What do sea turtles eat?, we recommend that you enter our Balanced Diets section.