Where Do Turtles Live

 

Where Do Turtles Live

Turtles live all over the world but the greatest number of species found in south-eastern North America and South Asia. Turtles are reptiles, with hard bony shells, developed from their ribs that act as a shield and protect them from the predators. Turtles are one of the oldest reptile groups and earliest known members are from the Middle Jurassic. There are 360 extant species that live in freshwater and sea-water but some species live in or around water. They spend most of their lives in water and the sea turtles rarely leave the ocean. They only come out on the beaches to lay eggs. Freshwater turtles live in freshwater of rivers, ponds, lakes, streams and any other water bodies.

Where Do Sea-turtles Live?

There are seven different species of sea turtles are found from the Indian Ocean to the colourful reefs of the Coral Triangle and also the sandy beaches of Eastern Pacific. The seven species are:-

1) Loggerhead turtle

2) Green turtle

3) Hawksbill turtle

4) Leatherbacks turtle

5) Flatback turtle

6) Kemp’s ridley turtle

7) Olive ridley turtle

Green Sea-turtle

Green sea turtles are found in over 80 countries and live in warm subtropical and tropical ocean waters. In the United States, Green sea turtles are found on the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the east coast of Florida. They are also found on Atlantic coast in Georgia, South California and North Carolina.

Green sea turtles live in the Atlantic Oceans, Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans. Atlantic green sea turtles are normally found near the shores of Europe and North America but the Easter Pacific green turtles are found in the shallow water from Alaska to Chile.

Green sea turtles spend most time in the coastal waters, where they get sea grass. They are also found in coral reefs, where they get red, brown and green algae to eat and also get protection from predators and rough storms. The Green sea turtles migrate a long distance from their feeding grounds to hatching beaches.

What Do Turtles Eat

Leatherback Turtle/ All About Leatherback Sea Turtle 

Green Sea Turtles Facts

Species of Sea Turtles

There are many islands in the world, which are called turtle islands where Green sea turtles make their nests. The nesting sites of Atlantic green sea turtles are mainly found on several islands in the Caribbean, eastern shores of US, eastern coast of the South America. Hutchinson Island is a main nesting ground of Atlantic green sea turtles.

In Indian Ocean, Green sea turtles live in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other coastal countries. The coastal areas of the Africa continent are also the nesting ground of the green sea turtles.

In the Caribbean, Aves Island, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Virgin Islands are the major nesting sites.

Hawksbill Turtle

Hawksbill Turtles are found mainly in tropical reefs of the Indian Ocean, Pacific Oceans and Atlantic Oceans. Two main known sub populations are the Atlantic sub-population and Indi-Pacific sub-population. Hawksbill turtles live in different habitat at different stages of their life cycle. In the Atlantic Oceans, Hawksbill Turtles live in the southern part of Florida, coast of Brazil, as well as the waters off Virginia and Texas.

In the Caribbean, the Hawksbill turtles live in the Lesser Antilles, Barbados, Tortuguero in Costa Rica, Yucatan, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. In Florida, they are found in the reefs of Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Monroe Counties and Broward.

In the Pacific, Hawksbill turtles live in Mexico and main nesting populations are found along the Eastern Pacific coast of the Americas from Mexico to Ecuador, include El Salvador, Nicaragua.

In Indian Ocean, Hawksbill turtles are found in African coast, southern coast of Asia, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, coastal waters of Indian sub continental, south-eastern part of Asia, the seas surrounding Madagascar and nearby islands groups, northern part of Australia and Malay Archipelago.

Hawksbill turtles are are also found from the south western tips of the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago, New Zealand. In Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, Molokai and Hawaii islans are the  nesting grounds of  the Hawksbill turtles and in Australia, their nesting ground is on Milman Island in the Great Barrier Reef.

 Australia and Solomon Islands are the largest nesting ground of Hawksbill turtles. Foraging hawksbill turtles are found from the Galapagos Islands in the eastern Pacific to the Republic of Palau in the western Pacific. Hawksbill turtles are known to nest on islands and mainland of Asia from China to Japan and all over the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Solomon Islands and Australia.

In the eastern Pacific Hawksbill turtles forage and nest in mangrove, bays and estuaries that are present in the Bahia de Jiquilisco, Estero Padre Ramos, Gulf of Fonseca and Gulf of Guayaquil. The Hawksbill Turtles do not live in Mediterranean Sea.

Leatherback Turtle

The Leatherback turtle is one of the unique sea turtle species. Its distinctive feature is its carapace, which has a smooth leathery skin and oily flesh that covers a flexible matrix of bone. Leatherback turtles live in the tropic and temperate waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean and also in Mediterranean Sea.

The Leatherback turtle are found as far north as Alaska and Norway and as far south as Cape Agulhas in Africa and southernmost tip of New Zealand and also found in Arctic Circle.

Leatherback turtles live in cold water where an abundance of jellyfish because they mainly eat jellyfish. Off the Atlantic coast of Canada, Leatherback turtles are found in the Gulf of Saint, Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Their known nest on Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana in South America, Barbuda and Antigua and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean and Gabon in Central Africa. Their nesting grounds are also found on the Eastern Coast of Florida and the beaches of Gandoca and Parismina in the Costa Rica.

The nesting ground of Pacific leatherback turtles are found in Papua, Indonesia and Solomon Islands, Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama. They also forage along the coast of California, Oregon, Washington; western coast of South America. The Leatherback turtles also visit the beaches of British Columbia. They live in open ocean and swim from Jeen Womom beach of Tambruw Regency in West Papua to the US in 20,000km for foraging.

 In Indian Ocean, Leatherback turtles live in Nicobar Islands and also found in Sri Lanka.

Loggerhead Turtle

The Loggerhead turtles is a wide-ranging species. Loggerhead turtles live all over the temperate subtropical and tropical regions of the Atlantic Oceans, Pacific Oceans and Indian Oceans and also in the Mediterranean Sea. They live in open oceans and in shallow coastal waters.

Loggerhead turtles live in sea or in inshore waters like salt marshes, lagoons, bays, ship channels and also in rocky place and coral reefs where they get plenty of preys.

 In the Atlantic Ocean, Loggerhead turtles are found in along the south-eastern coast of North America and in the Gulf of Mexico and their range extends from Newfoundland to Argentina. Along the European and African coastlines, a few Loggerhead turtles are found. The major nesting site of Loggerhead turtles is Florida, where more than 67,000 nests built per year.

Their nesting is found in Virginia, Brazil and Cape Verde Islands. On the eastern side of the Atlantic, their significant nesting site is found only on the Cape Verde Islands. In Atlantic, the Loggerhead turtle’s range extends from Canada to Brazil. In Pacific Ocean, Loggerhead turtles live in temperate to tropical regions. In the Eastern Pacific, Loggerhead turtles are found from Alaska to Chile. East China Sea, Baja California Peninsula are rich feeding grounds for juvenile turtles. In US, they are occasionally found from the coast of Washington and Oregon. In Pacific Ocean, the major nesting areas are Eastern Australia and Japan and also Great Barrier Reef. Three most important nesting grounds are found in Yakushima Islands, where 40% of all leatherhead turtles visited. A study suggests that 95% of Loggerhead turtle population along the coast of Americas hatch on Japanese Islands.

Most loggerhead nesting are found in the western rims of Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean, mainly in Oman, Australia, US and also occur on the beaches from North California through south west Florida; a few nesting extends westward into Gulf of Mexico to Texas and also southern Virginia.

 In the Indian Ocean, Loggerhead turtles are found to feed along the coastline of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and in the Arabian Sea. In African coastline, they are found from Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago to St Lucia estuary. Their major nesting site Oman, with 15000 nests, making the site the second largest nesting population of Loggerhead in the world. Western Australia is another main nesting ground.

Flatback Turtle

Flatback turtles have the small geographic range and the turtles live in shallow waters along the coast or continental shelf of Australia. They are found in the waters of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific. Flatback turtles are indigenous to Australia and are only found in the coastal waters of Eastern, Western and Northern Australia. They prefer to live in open water in bays, lagoons estuaries, soft-bottomed sea bed and grassy waters and spend most time into the water.

Olive ridley Turtle

Olive ridley turtles live in the tropical, regions of the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Oceans and Indian Ocean. They are found in the coastal areas, bays and estuaries. Olive ridley turtles are found from India, Arabia, Japan to southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

In Atlantic Ocean, Olive ridley turtles live in western coast of Africa, North Brazilian coast, Suriname, Venezuela, French Guiana and Guyana and also in the Caribbean Sea and as far north as Puerto Rico.

 In 2020, a juvenile female Olive ridley turtle was found off the coast of Sussex. In the Eastern Pacific, the range of Olive ridley turtles from Galapagos Islands and Chile to the Gulf of California.

 In the Eastern Pacific, Olive ridley turtles live in Baja California, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua and Colombia.

 In the Indian Ocean, Olive ridley turtles are found in eastern India and Sri Lanka. The coast of Odisha in India is the largest nesting ground of the Olive ridley turtle. Other nesting grounds are found in Guatemala, Brazil, Pakistan, Malaysia, Myanmar etc.

Kemp’s ridley Turtle

Kemp’s ridley turtles primarily live in the nearshore and inshore of the northern Gulf of Mexico and Nova Scotia and from the southern coast of Florida Peninsula to the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and in the western gulf waters of Texas, Tamaulipas, Veracruz.

Juvenile and sub-adults are found in the coastal waters of the North America, from southern Florida to Cape Cop. Their nesting found on the beach near Rancho Nuevo, Mexico, in the state of Tamaulipas and in Texas along the Padre Island National Seashore, where large groups of Kemp’s ridley turtles gather.

Where Do Freshwater Turtles Live?

Freshwater turtles live in fresh water of rivers, lakes, ponds, stream and any other water bodies.  About 23 species of freshwater turtles live in Australia. 7 species of freshwater turtles are found in New South Wales. Red-eared slider is a freshwater turtle and has been found in Sydney region. Map turtle prefer to live in the fresh flowing stream water but alligator snapping turtles live in deep, slow moving streams of the US Gulf Coast. South Asia provides a wide range of habitats and environment ranging from desert to rainforests. Softshell turtles live in most water bodies from tiny ponds to large rivers. The Indian and Burmese flapshell turtles live in slow moving streams and also rice paddies. The narrow-headed softshells and Asian giant softshell turtles live in large, deep rivers. Some species of Asian Box turtles live in forest ponds and streams. Asia is the home of two largest species of pond turtles; the Asian river turtle and the Painted terrapin.

Eight species of freshwater turtles are native to Canada. Freshwater turtles live in every Canadian province except Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of them are confined southern Ontario and Quebec Maritimes and in southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Painted turtles are found in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

 

Sea turtle population is severely reduced worldwide. 6 turtle species out of 7 are classified as threatened or endangered due to human actions and lifestyles. Loggerhead sea turtles and green sea turtles are listed as threatened and Leatherback, hawksbill and Kemp's Ridley sea turtle species are endangered. Water pollution from garbage, chemicals and discarded fishing nets, lines and hooks are often eaten by sea turtles, causing their health issues or even death. Turtle’s population have reduced in the past few decades due to human’s demand for their meat, skin, eggs and shells. Of the 356 turtle species in the modern era, astonishingly 61% are extinct or endangered.