Turtle
Facts
- Sea turtles excrete salt absorbed in sea water from their eyes, which is why they seem to cry.
- Some female turtles produce eggs four years after mating.
- All chelonian turtles lay their eggs on land, even the marine turtles.
- Some turtles can live for more than a year without food.
- Age 80 is middle-aged for Galapagos tortoises.
- Turtles age back from the Triassic age, 200 million years ago.
- Hawkbill turtles feast off sea sponges which are highly poisonous to most sea animals, but not to this turtle.
- Baby sea turtles circle their nest once after hatching before heading toward the ocean.
- The leatherback turtle is the largest sea turtle at 6 and a half feet long and weighing up to 1,500 lb.
- The soft shelled turtle uses it's long tip nose and nostrils like a snorkel to breath under water.
- The big-headed turtle's head is as hard as a skull and is too big to retract into its shell.
- Some land turtles can actually out run a human on level ground.
- The green sea turtle can stay under water for over five hours without coming up for air.
- Two galapagos tortoises will fight over territory or a female mate by seeing who can stretch their neck higher over the other.
- The desert tortoise is probably the slowest of all tortoises. It can only move 2 feet each minute.
- Once a male sea turtle hatches and enters the ocean, it will probably not step on land again.
- A female turtle laying eggs will dig several empty nests to throw off predators trying to eat the eggs.
- Many snapping turtles have been known for biting for no reason at all and not letting go.
- When in danger the green turtle can swim almost 20 miles an hour to escape.
- The musk turtle produces a vile stench odor to ward off predators.
- Box turtles can eat too much as to no longer fit inside their shell.
- A snake-neck turtle's neck is as long as its body.
- Hingeback and box turtles each have hinges on their shells that actually allow them to completely enter their shell by closing up the openings.
- When in the eggs, turtles take about 2 months to incubate and their sex is determined by the temperature. Under 29 degrees they become male, over 29 degrees they become female.
- Female turtles mate with several males in the ocean and store the sperm inside them, so a single nest may hold babies from various fathers.
- Only one out of one thousand sea turtles survive after hatching