Green Sea Turtle: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Turtles · day 1 of 7

Five facts

1. Baby green sea turtles eat meat, but adults eat plants. Their seagrass diet turns the fat under their shell green, hence the name.
2. The diet shift happens as juveniles grow up, and it changes the shape of their skull.
3. At night, a female crawls up the beach, digs a hole with her back flippers and lays 85 to 200 eggs.
4. The eggs hatch after about 50 to 70 days, at night, and the hatchlings head straight for the sea.
5. Green sea turtles can live 80 years or more in the wild. Young ones spend three to five years in the open ocean.

The quiz

1. What turns the fat under a green sea turtle's shell green?

• Sunlight
• A plant-based diet (correct)
• Eating jellyfish
• Ocean salt

Eating plants such as seagrass turns the fat green.

2. What does the switch to a plant diet change?

• The colour of their eyes
• The shape of their skull (correct)
• The number of flippers
• The length of their tail

The diet shift changes the shape of their skull.

3. What does a female use to dig her nest?

• Her back flippers (correct)
• Her front flippers
• Her beak
• Her shell edge

She digs the hole with her back flippers.

4. After about how many days do green turtle eggs hatch?

• About 5 to 7
• About 50 to 70 (correct)
• About 500
• About 2

The eggs hatch after about 50 to 70 days.

5. How long do young green turtles spend in the open ocean?

• One year
• Three to five years (correct)
• Ten years
• Three months

Young turtles spend three to five years in the open ocean.

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