Green Sea Turtles
A four-legged sea creature with a flat, streamlined shell and head poking out is a sea turtle. As you probably know, there are many different kinds: loggerhead sea turtles, hawksbill sea turtles, flatback sea turtles, etc. But in this essay, we're going to be talking about green sea turtles: their location, habitat, food, and so much more.
Green sea turtles, true to their sea turtle heritage, live in the sea for most of their lives: in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. These turtles like to stay in relatively shallow and warm waters. For example, along coastlines are common spots. That way, these cold-blooded reptiles can easily find any excellent meal!
As an adult, green sea turtles eat algae and seaweed, as well as seagrasses. When they were babies, they would have eaten a very different diet, consisting of fish eggs, mollusks, and crustaceans.
Just like sea turtles eat plants, other animals in turn eat turtles. While babies have a wide range of animal predators (including ghost crabs, raccoons, seabirds, and even some fish) adults have different dangers: tiger sharks/killer whales and the most dangerous predator of all, humans.
While you might think that humans wouldn't want to kill green sea turtles or even any turtle for that matter, that would be a mistake. Humans kill them for their shells, their meat, their skin, and their eggs. People also unintentionally harm green sea turtles through their carelessness. When people increase beachfront development, it ruins the green sea turtle's natural egg-laying habitat.
So, what do turtles do when a predator comes around? They defend themselves. You might think that they can stick their heads and legs in their shell until the danger is over, but you'd be wrong. Unlike land turtles, sea turtles aren't gifted like that. Instead, their bodies are made for endurance and speed in the water. Therefore, when females go on land to lay their eggs, they become clumsy and virtually powerless.
The lifecycle of the green sea turtle is simple. A female turtle lays eggs on the beach. About two months later, babies hatch and dig themselves up to the surface. When darkness falls, they'll come out and go to the water. Juvenile sea turtles will grow up for ten years. Females and males will mate. After that, the cycle starts over again.
You probably know that wolves travel in packs, fish travel in schools, and dolphins travel in pods. Unlike these other animals, green sea turtles are very solitary creatures. The only time that they come together is for the single purpose of mating. As for parents and their young, I guess that some never see each other in their entire lifetimes.
Now you know all about the green sea turtles. Their life story is right before your very eyes. Help the cause. Help these green sea turtles never go extinct. You might not think you can make a difference, but you can. If we just put our heads together, green sea turtles will flourish in their rightful habitat, free of human predators!
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