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Hawksbill Sea Turtle — printable fact sheet
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Hawksbill Sea Turtle
Eretmochelys imbricata
Eretmochelys imbricata is the only sea turtle whose scutes overlap like roof tiles, and that shell is the reason it is Critically Endangered. Polished, it becomes "tortoiseshell" - bekko in Japan - and for centuries it was worked into combs, spectacle frames, boxes and inlay; Ja…
Did you know?
- Hawksbill Sea Turtles can nest as many as six times in a single season, laying up to 200 eggs per nest.
- A single hawksbill can eat over 500 kg of sponge in a year, and it works through species so toxic that few other reef animals will touch them. Their nesting beaches are typically small, scattered pockets rather than the mass arribadas of ridleys, which makes each colony individually vulnerable. Tortoiseshell is still traded illegally, and DNA and isotope forensics on seized shell can now identify which ocean basin a poached turtle came from.
What I learned
Draw the hawksbill sea turtle
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