Common name: Olive Ridley Sea Turtle

Type: Reptilia

Family: Cheloniidae

Range: When you consider about the range of this turtle, it normally lives in the warm waters and tropical areas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans from New Zealand, Japan, India, and Micronesia south to southern Africa, Arabia and Australia. It is also observed in the areas including the west coast of Africa along with the coasts of northern Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Brazil, French Guiana and Suriname of Atlantic Ocean. They also nest around the northern Indian Ocean, Mexico, Costa Rica and Nicaragua in a wider way.

Size: The olive ridley sea turtle is normally has the length of 60 to 70 cm and weighed about 25 to 50kg

Diet: When you consider about the olive ridley sea turtle, it is normally the omnivorous one and that too specific in the immature stages of the Lifecycle. It usually feeds on the animal preys including invertebrates or protochordates in order to make over the shallow marine waters or estuarine habitats in a better and reliable way. Common prey items included with sipunculid worms, jellyfish, shrimp, tunicates, rock lobsters, bryozoans, crabs, sea urchins, shrimp, bivalves and snails.

If you consider about the pelagic or open ocean feeding, then it would probably be indicated by the feeding items such as fish eggs, jelly fish and adult fish. In the areas, where there is devoid of food sources this bird prefer to feed on the filamentous algae. Cannibalistic behavior at some level of this species can be indicated through the captive studies in a better way.

Average lifespan: This bird has the average lifespan in the wild as 50 years and it is decided that the lifespan normally as 4 to 9 years

Habitat: There are some observations made with the habitat of the sea turtle and in the result it came up with the shallow marine waters about 22 to 55m deep. The observations have been made in the protected area of mainland shores within 15km. They also live in the open waters occasionally. When you consider about the Lifecycle of this turtle, the geographical localities and multiple habitats would be vary depending on the species. In order to go through the pelagic habitats of this turtle, it is necessary to go through the efficient research to acquire data and usage on it.
Breeding/Reproduction: The mating of olive ridley occurs mostly in the vicinity of nesting beaches, but most of the time the copulating pairs would have been reported over 1000km even from the nearest beach. When you consider about the breeding season, it normally occurs throughout the year along with the peak nesting events that would probably occur between September and December in the eastern Pacific region.

The incubation period of this sea turtle is normally from 45 to 51 days and it may be extended to 70 days during the poor weather conditions. Female usually lays 30 to 168 eggs with clutch size of 116 and they are incubated at the temperature about 28°C to 32°C. Eggs those are incubated less than 28°C would produce males and in other cases, it would produce females. The incubation temperature, which is between 29 to 30°C normally produced out the mixed clutch. Hatching success of the turtle would probably be varied depending on the beach and year because of the nest predation rates and change in the environmental conditions.

When you consider about the physical appearance of the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle, it normally appears with the heart-shaped carapace along with the pore-bearing as four-pairs. It also has the inframarginal scutes on the bridge and that too as two pairs of prefrontals along with the lateral scutes up to 9 per side. Most of the species of olive ridley have their scutes as variable and asymmetrical one as ranging from five to 9 petals on each side of them. Mostly six to eight have been observed in an efficient way.

If you go through the exterior of this Olive Ridley Sea Turtle, it is available with 12 to 14 marginal scutes on each side along with the highest and dorsally flattened anterior to the bridge. The head of the turtle would be a medium-sized and broad one, which appears as the triangular one from the above. In the upper part of the short snout, it is obvious to get through the concave sides of the head as the best one. The paddle-like forelimbs are available with two anterior claws for the efficient make over. When you consider about the upper parts of it, it usually appears in the color of grayish green to olive and sometimes it would be appeared in the color of red because of the growth of algae on the carapace. The color of hingeless plastron is normally greenish in younger individuals and creamy yellow in old.

Even though the hatchlings are dark gray along with pale yolk scar, it would probably be appeared as black in the wet state. The length of carapace would be ranged from 37 to 50 mm along with the thin white line borders. Juveniles and hatchlings would probably serrate with the posterior marginal scutes that offer with smooth with age. The juveniles are also available with three dorsal keels, in which serrated profile of younger turtles has been got by central longitudinal keel that would be helpful in reaching out the sexual maturity.

When you consider about the breeding of Olive Ridley Sea Turtle most of the research those made in Costa Rica has come up with the result as copulating pairs near the beach would take responsible for the fertilization of females that too even as thousands. Because of this reason, it is evident that the significant amount of mating would be done with turtles every year in an efficient way. Generally the aggregation would be started out near the nesting beaches about two months before by the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle, even though the range may be varied throughout the season. If you go through the varieties of nesting beaches, it would probably be included with free of debris, flat and mid-beach zone. In the case of breeding season, nesting events are built as diurnal one, which is normally nocturnal.

Since the olive ridley sea turtle can be seen easily in the beach sides of Costa Rica, when you go for the trip to beach with your family, then you would probably get the chance to enjoy the play of it. It would also provide you with the new and best experience.