Hawksbill Sea Turtle: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Turtles · day 4 of 7

Five facts

1. The hawksbill is biofluorescent: it can glow when light shines on it. It was the first reptile found to do this.
2. Sponges make up 70 to 95% of a hawksbill's diet, but it eats only certain kinds and ignores many others.
3. Hawksbills shrug off their food: some of the sponges they eat are very toxic, and often deadly, to other creatures.
4. Its sharp, hooked beak and saw-edged shell make the hawksbill easy to tell apart from other sea turtles.
5. A hawksbill's shell can shift colour a little as the water gets warmer or cooler.

The quiz

1. What was the hawksbill the first reptile known to do?

• Sing underwater
• Change sex with the tides
• Glow (biofluorescence) (correct)
• Breathe through its skin

It is biofluorescent, the first reptile recorded with this ability.

2. What share of a hawksbill's diet is sponges?

• 70 to 95% (correct)
• 10 to 20%
• 30 to 40%
• 50 to 60%

Sponges make up 70 to 95% of the diet.

3. What is true of some sponges that hawksbills eat?

• They glow in the dark
• They are always bright red
• They are very rare
• They are often deadly to other animals (correct)

Some sponges they eat are very toxic, often deadly, to other animals.

4. What helps tell a hawksbill from other sea turtles?

• A round, blunt beak
• Its sharp, curving beak (correct)
• A bright red tail
• A smooth shell edge

Its sharp, curving beak and saw-like shell edges set it apart.

5. What makes a hawksbill's shell change color slightly?

• The season
• Its age only
• Water temperature (correct)
• What it ate that day

Its shell colour shifts slightly with water temperature.

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