Loggerhead Sea Turtle Images

Loggerhead Sea Turtle Images, Facts and Information:

Caretta caretta

• Loggerhead Sea Turtles are large marine reptiles named for their exceptionally large heads. They have a reddish-brown carapace (upper shell), a pale-yellow plastron (underside), and powerful jaws. The average adult measures about 3 feet in length and weighs around 250 pounds.
• Loggerhead Sea Turtles are found globally in the temperate and tropical regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea. They spend most of their lives in saltwater, using coastal areas for feeding and open ocean currents for migration. Adult females return to sandy beaches, usually the ones where they hatched, for nesting.
• Loggerhead Sea Turtles are carnivores with a varied diet, primarily consisting of bottom-dwelling invertebrates. Their strong jaws allow them to crush hard-shelled prey like conchs, crabs, and whelks. They also eat mollusks, crustaceans, and sometimes fish and plants.
• Loggerhead Sea Turtles reach sexual maturity at a late age, approximately 35 years. Females nest every 2 to 3 years, typically laying 3 to 5 clutches of about 100 to 120 eggs each during the nesting season (April to September in the Northern Hemisphere). The eggs incubate for about two months, with the sex of the hatchlings determined by the sand temperature.
• Loggerhead Sea Turtles are also known as “Loggerheads” and are the most abundant species of sea turtle to nest in the United States.
• A group of sea turtles can be called a “bale” or “colony” of turtles.
• The lifespan of Loggerhead Sea Turtles in the wild is estimated to be 62 to 80 years or more.

I hope you enjoy viewing my Loggerhead Sea Turtle photos.