Turtle Facts
Sea turtles excrete salt absorbed in sea water from their eyes, which is why they seem to cry.Some female turtles produce eggs four years after mating.All chelonian turtles lay their eggs on land, even the marine turtles.Some turtles can live for more than a year without food.Age 80 is middle-aged for galapagos tortoises.Turtles age back from the Triassic age, 200 million years ago.Hawkbill turtles feast off sea sponges which are highly poisonous to most sea animals, but not to this turtle.Baby sea turtles circle their nest once after hatching before heading toward the ocean.The leatherback turtle is the largest sea turtle at 6 and a half feet long and weighing up to 1,500 lb.The soft shelled turtle uses it's long tip nose and nostrils like a snorkel to breath under water.The big-headed turtle's head is as hard as a skull and is too big to retract into its shell.Some land turtles can actually out run a human on level ground.The green sea turtle can stay under water for over five hours without coming up for air.Two galapagos tortoises will fight over territory or a female mate by seeing who can stretch their neck higher over the other.The desert tortoise is probably the slowest of all tortoises. It can only move 2 feet each minute.Once a male sea turtle hatches and enters the ocean, it will probably not step on land again.A female turtle laying eggs will dig several empty nests to throw off predators trying to eat the eggs.Many snapping turtles have been known for biting for no reason at all and not letting go.When in danger the green turtle can swim almost 20 miles an hour to escape.The musk turtle produces a vile stench odor to ward off predators.Box turtles can eat too much as to no longer fit inside their shell.A snake-neck turtle's neck is as long as its body.Hingeback and box turtles each have hinges on their shells that actaully allow them to completely enter their shell by closing up the openings.When in the eggs, turtles take about 2 months to incubate and their sex is determined by the temperature. Under 29 degrees they become male, over 29 degrees they become female.Female turtles mate with several males in the ocean and store the sperm inside them, so a single nest may hodl babies from various fathers.Only one out of one thousand sea turtles survive after hatching.
