Sea turtles

Sea turtles, such as green turtles are the long-distance migration champions of the reptile world.

They travel thousands of kilometres through the oceans, following the currents and navigating using the earth’s magnetic field, but they nearly always return to breed on the beaches where they were born.

In spring, male and female turtles meet in the shallows for courtship and mating. Then, on a dark, moonless night, the females come ashore to lay their eggs. They use their flippers to dig a pit in the dry sand on the beach and lay their eggs in it, hidden from predators and safe from the waves. 

They then shovel sand over the eggs until nothing can be seen and crawl back to the sea and swim away. The whole process takes about two hours. Each female lays three to four clutches, at 12–14 day intervals, each containing over 100 eggs. She then doesn’t return to lay eggs again for at least another three years.

When the eggs hatch, 56 days later, the babies dig their way out of the sand at night and hurry down the beach to the sea. By day, predators such as crabs, dogs and vultures are waiting to snap them up. Many babies never even reach the ocean, and fewer than 3% survive to become mature adults. But those that do can live for more than 50 years.