In many areas where they nest, eggs are taken from nests for consumption or as false aphrodisiacs. Humans are a significant threat to leatherback sea turtles. Baby leatherback turtles start their lives on the sand and quickly make their way to the sea Conservation Status Males, in contrast, spend the rest of their lives at sea, living up to 100 years of age as a mostly solitary nomad. At this point, they will return to the same nesting area they were born in to breed again and restart the cycle anew. Female hatchlings will roam the oceans until they reach sexual maturity at around 10 to 15 years of age. New hatchlings are highly susceptible to predation and very few of the eggs laid by each female will survive to adulthood. Under the cover of nightfall, they will dig a hole in the sand and lay about eighty eggs before covering them again and returning to the sea. After mating at sea, females will haul themselves up on the beach to lay their eggs.
Leatherback turtles travel great distances between their breeding grounds and feeding grounds. Leatherbacks will also eat other prey items such as small fish, mollusks, sea urchins, and various cephalopods. They have a preference for jellyfish, snatching them out of the water column as they swim by. The leatherback sea turtle is unique among sea turtles in several ways, including their diet. Leatherback sea turtles are proficient swimmers Diet and Predators Outside of the breeding season, they can be seen in temperate parts of the ocean as well such as the waters of Chile and New Zealand, for example. Leatherback sea turtles live in most of the world’s oceans and nest in tropical beaches in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, although they were once much more abundant.
It has long fore flippers and shorter hind flippers, and visible lateral lines down the length of its shell, which is dark green to black in appearance. Its name is derived from its shell which is a thick, leathery texture. The leatherback sea turtle is the largest of eight extant sea turtle species, weighing up to 1,540 lb (700 kg). Leatherback turtles have a streamline, tear-drop shape that helps reduce drag in the water Description The largest of all sea turtles and the fourth heaviest reptilian species in the world, the leatherback sea turtle can weigh up to 1,540 lb (700 kg). It inhabits marine ecosystems and lays its eggs on lands in dramatic nesting events. Predicting when, where, and how climate change could impact the reproductive output of local populations is crucial for anticipating how a warming world will influence population size, growth, and stability.The leatherback sea turtle or is a large reptile of the family Dermochelyidae.
Some populations could show very complex responses to climate change, with higher relative hatchling production as temperatures begin to increase, followed by declines as critical physiological thresholds are exceeded more frequently. Under climate change, many sea turtle populations nesting in tropical environments are predicted to experience severe reductions in hatchling production, whereas hatching success in many temperate populations could remain unchanged or even increase with rising temperatures. Strong correlations between empirical hatching success and habitat quality allowed global predictions of the spatiotemporal impacts of climate change on this fitness trait. Currently, loggerhead sea turtle populations in the tropics produce nearly 30% fewer hatchlings per nest than temperate populations. Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) have the widest nesting range of any living reptile, spanning temperate to tropical latitudes in both hemispheres. As a consequence, the effects of climate change might become evident earlier and be more devastating for hatchling production in the tropics. Oviparous species could be especially vulnerable because the maximum thermal tolerances of incubating embryos is often lower than adult counterparts, and in many species mothers abandon the eggs after oviposition, rendering them immobile and thus unable to avoid extreme temperatures. Relatively small temperature increases could cause animals to exceed these thresholds more often, resulting in substantial fitness costs or even death. Animals living in tropical regions may be at increased risk from climate change because current temperatures at these locations already approach critical physiological thresholds.
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