Olive Ridley Sea Turtle: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Turtles · day 7 of 7

Five facts

1. In 1991, more than 600,000 olive ridleys came ashore to nest on the Odisha coast of India in a single week.
2. Olive ridleys are famous for arribadas, when thousands of females nest on the same beach at the same time.
3. Females return to lay their eggs on the beach where they hatched.
4. Using their back flippers, females work hard to dig cone-shaped nests about 46 cm deep.
5. In November 2016, a lone female was found alive on a beach on Anglesey, in the Irish Sea: the most northerly record for the species.

The quiz

1. How many turtles nested along the Odisha coast in one week in 1991?

• Over 6,000
• Over 60,000
• Over 600,000 (correct)
• Over 6 million

Over 600,000 turtles nested there in one week in 1991.

2. What is an arribada?

• A long migration across the ocean
• A fight between males
• A feeding frenzy at sea
• Thousands of females laying eggs on one beach together (correct)

Thousands of females come together on one beach to lay eggs.

3. Where do females return to lay their eggs?

• The beach where they hatched (correct)
• The nearest island
• A beach chosen at random
• A river mouth

Females return to the beach where they hatched.

4. How deep are the cone-shaped nests the females dig?

• About 5 cm
• About 46 cm (correct)
• About 1.5 m
• About 4.6 m

The nests are about 46 cm deep.

5. Where was a lone olive ridley found alive in November 2016?

• On a beach on Anglesey, in the Irish Sea (correct)
• On a beach in Odisha
• On a beach in Costa Rica
• On a beach in Mexico

A lone female was found alive on Anglesey, in the Irish Sea.

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