Hawksbill Turtle

SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Eretmochelys imbricata

🇪🇸 Common name (ES): Tortuga carey

🇺🇸 Common name (EN): Hawksbill Turtle

CLASSIFICATION

Phylum:

Chordata

Class:

Reptilia

Order:

Testudines

Family:

Cheloniidae

Genus:

Eretmochelys

Species:

Eretmochelys imbricata

DISTRIBUTION IN COSTA RICA

●  1 – Bat Islands
●  2 – Gulf of Papagayo
●  3 – Catalina Islands
●  4 – Osa Peninsula
●  5 – Golfo Dulce
●  6 – Cocos Island

DEPTH RANGE

General: 0–30 m (0–98 ft)

Common: 2–15 m (7–49 ft)

    

 

HABITAT

🪸 Coral reefs

Seagrass meadows

🪨 Rocky bottoms

🌊 Open water

🏖️ Beaches

HOW TO IDENTIFY IT

  • Adult length: 62–95 cm (2–3.1 ft).
  • Weight: 45–90 kg (99–198 lb).
  • Elliptical shell, slightly compressed laterally, with amber-brown coloration and radiating streaks of dark yellow, orange and black; serrated shell margin.
  • The horny shell plates, or scutes, overlap in young adults.
  • Narrow, elongated head with a pointed beak that curves downward.
  • Long front flippers with two visible claws along the leading edge.
  • Adult males have longer, thicker tails and a more prominent curved claw on the front flippers.

SIMILAR SPECIES

  • Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas): Smoother shell with scutes that do not overlap.
  • Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea): Rounder head with a straighter beak.

SIGHTING FREQUENCY

  • ●●●○○ Occasional

 

 

REPRODUCTION

  • Sexual maturity: 20–35 years.
  • 🥚 Oviparous: females return to the beach where they hatched to nest, usually every 2–5 years.
  • A female may lay 3–6 clutches in a nesting season, with 13–18 days between clutches.
  • Mating occurs at sea several weeks before the first clutch is laid.
  • Each clutch contains 80–160 spherical eggs; incubation lasts 60–70 days.
  • Hatchling sex is determined by incubation temperature: temperatures above 29.5°C (85.1°F) produce predominantly females, while temperatures below 28.5°C (83.3°F) produce predominantly males.

 

 

BEHAVIOR

  • Solitary and bottom-associated, moving around reefs and exploring crevices in search of food.
  • Partly nocturnal in areas with high predation pressure.
  • Surfaces to breathe every 45–90 minutes while active, but may remain submerged for 3–4 hours when resting.
  • Not territorial.

 

 

DIET

  • 🧽 Primarily sponges, which make up 70–95% of the diet.
  • Also eats jellyfish, sessile tunicates, crinoids, sea anemones, calcareous algae and soft-bodied mollusks.