What do turtles eat according to their type?

What do turtles eat? The diet of sea turtles varies according to their species and their age, being able to be omnivorous, herbivorous or carnivorous. The existence of these creatures has been affected by the indiscriminate fishing of their food source as well as by the same pollution that has led to the seas being filled with plastic bags that they end up swallowing.

They eat turtles

What do sea turtles eat?

Sea turtles or kelonoids (superfamily Chelonoidea) constitute a group of reptiles that have adapted to life in the ocean. To this end, as we will see, they have a set of physical features that enable them to swim for very long periods of time and are helpful for their existence in the water.

What each of the varieties of sea turtles eats is associated with their particularities, with the regions of the planet in which they live and their migrations. Do you want to know more? Below we will answer all your questions about the feeding of sea turtles.

Characteristics of Sea Turtles

Before finding out what sea turtles eat, we need to know them a little better. To this end, we must understand that the kelonoid superfamily brings together just 7 species around the globe, which have a whole series of related traits:

They eat turtles

  • Shell: These reptiles have a bony shell that is made up of the ribs and part of the backbone. It is composed of two elements: the carapace (dorsal) and the plastron (ventral) that meet laterally.
  • fins: In contrast to land turtles, sea turtles have flippers instead of feet and their bodies have developed to stay in the water for many hours.
  • Habitat: sea turtles are distributed, particularly, in warm temperature seas and oceans. They are almost completely aquatic creatures whose life is spent in the seas. Only females land on land to release their eggs on the beach where they themselves hatched.
  • Lifecycle: the period of life of sea turtles begins with the birth of newborns on the beaches and their incorporation into the sea. Except for the flatback turtle (Natator depressus), young turtles have a pelagic stage that regularly exceeds 5 years. Around that age, they reach maturity and start migrating.
  • migration: sea turtles carry out enormous migrations between the feeding area and the mating area. The females, additionally, move to the beaches where they were born to lay their eggs, although these are usually close to the mating area.
  • Senses: Like most marine animals, turtles have a highly evolved sense of hearing. In addition to this, their eyesight also has more development than that of land turtles. Equally outstanding is their powerful ability to orient themselves through their long migrations.
  • Sex determination: the temperature of the sand is what conclusively defines the sex of the hatchlings when they are still inside the egg. In such a way that, when temperatures are high, the development of females takes place, while low temperatures favor the development of males.
  • Threats: all sea turtles, with the exception of the flatback turtle (N. depressus), are under threat throughout the world. The hawksbill sea turtle and the Kemp's ridley sea turtle are critically endangered. The threats that most weigh on these marine animals are the pollution of the oceans, the human invasion of the beaches, accidental fishing and the devastation of their habitats due to trawling.

Types of Food

Turtles do not have teeth, but use the sharp edges of their mouths to cut up food. Due to this, the diet of sea turtles is based on marine plants and invertebrates. However, the answer to what do sea turtles eat is not so simple, since not all of them eat the same thing. Indeed, three categories of sea turtles can be differentiated according to their diet:

  • Carnivores
  • herbivores
  • omnivorous

Carnivorous Sea Turtles

In general, these turtles eat all kinds of marine invertebrates, such as zooplankton, sponges, jellyfish, molluscs, crustaceans, echinoderms and polychaete annelids. Below we list the classes of carnivorous sea turtles and what their diet consists of:

  • Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea): it is the largest turtle in the world and its back can extend up to 220 centimeters in length. Their diet is based on jellyfish of the Scyphozoa class and zooplankton.
  • Kemp's ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii): this sea turtle lives near the coast and feeds on all kinds of invertebrates. Eventually, it can also eat certain algae.
  • Flat turtle (Natator depressus): it is typical of the continental shelf of Australia and, although they are almost exclusively carnivorous, they can also feed on small portions of algae.

Herbivorous Sea Turtles

Herbivorous sea turtles have a horny beak with saws that allow them to cut the plants they are going to feed on. Specifically, they eat algae and seagrass plants such as Zoostera or Posidonia. Only one species of herbivorous sea turtle is known, the green turtle (Chelonia mydas).

However, even as young and young they also consume invertebrates, which means that they are omnivores. This variety in their diet can be caused by a higher protein requirement throughout their growth.

Omnivorous Sea Turtles

Omnivorous sea turtles eat invertebrate animals, plants and certain fish that are located on the seabed. As part of this group, the following species can be included:

  • Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta): this widely distributed variety feeds on all kinds of invertebrates, algae and marine phanerogams and can even gobble up certain fish.
  • Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidchelys olivacea): is a turtle found in tropical and subtropical waters. Its feeding is very opportunistic and varies according to the place where it is.
  • Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata): immature hawksbill turtles are essentially carnivorous. However, adults incorporate algae into their regular diet, so they can be considered omnivores.

Turtles Eat Plastic Bags Too, Unfortunately

For sea turtles, being able to answer this question could be extremely simple. Jellyfish are a delicious and nutritious food for these turtles, which have scales that protect them from the poison applied by the jellyfish. But a single plastic item can be lethal to sea turtles because they don't know what plastic means and have no way of knowing.

What do sea turtles usually eat? In the seas of our planet, seven species of sea turtles are found, each with different dietary preferences.

  • Loggerhead: their young are omnivores, that is, they feed on both animals and plants, but in their adulthood they are carnivores, who mostly prefer crabs and snails.
  • Verde: Adult sea turtles are herbivorous and preferentially swim in the immediate vicinity of coral reefs, tearing at grass and algae. Their young, however, are omnivorous.
  • Tortoiseshell: Its beak, similar to that of a bird, allows the hawksbill to reach the cracks in the coral reefs to reach the sea sponges, which is in fact what these finicky animals are looking for.
  • Lute: Leatherback sea turtles are often referred to as gelatinivorous, meaning they only feed on invertebrates such as jellyfish and sea squirts.
  • Plana: This variety eats everything, including seaweed, shrimp and crabs.
  • Lora: the only food present in the Kemp's ridley's menu is meat, preferably crab.
  • Olive Ridley: This is another omnivorous turtle that gobbles up jellyfish, sea cucumbers, fish, and a wide variety of plants and animals.

Although the first ancestors of these seven varieties were terrestrial about 220 million years ago, today's turtles have evolved to hunt successfully under the waves. That was true until plastic made its appearance.
 
Plastic has only been produced on a massive scale since the 1940s, but it is more recently that we have seen how it has catastrophically impacted sea turtles. Research concludes that 52% of sea turtles around the planet have swallowed plastic waste. The reason is very simple: a plastic bag floating in the sea can resemble a huge jellyfish, algae or other variety that is regularly part of the diet of sea turtles.

All species of sea turtles are in danger because of plastic. According to research from the University of Tokyo, both the loggerhead sea turtle (carnivorous in nature) and the green sea turtle (which essentially feeds on plants) have been ingesting plastic in worrying amounts.

In fact, loggerhead turtles have ingested plastic 17% of the times they have, probably mistaking it for jellyfish. This number shot up to 62% in green turtles, with the possibility of searching for algae. However, eating plastic is not the only thing that puts sea turtles at risk. By getting trapped in abandoned fishing nets, they can easily die, drowning or preventing them from fleeing from their predators.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi9MMtYV_ns

Tragically, the accumulation of plastic on the most important nesting beaches makes it more likely that baby turtles will become entangled in the plastic, preventing them from reaching the sea. For sea turtles that swallow plastic, the picture is grim: for the 22% of those that gobble up a single plastic object it can mean a death sentence.

Sharp plastics can rupture their internal organs and the bags can cause intestinal blockages, preventing the turtles from feeding, leading to starvation. Even if they do survive, consuming plastic can cause turtles to float unusually, which can stunt their growth and lead to slower reproductive rates.

Sea turtles face many threats, but we can all help them by reducing plastic pollution, recycling and not using disposable items. In the same way, governments must take action to end this pollution epidemic.

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