17 Interesting Facts about Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (with Pictures)

Olive ridley sea turtle

The olive ridley sea turtle is one of the smallest of the turtles.

17 Interesting Facts about Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (with Pictures)

This post provides interesting facts about the olive ridley sea turtle to improve your knowledge of the animal. It also makes the learning fun with amazing pictures.

Continue reading ….

The olive ridley sea turtle has a scientific name known as Lepidochelys olivacea and is from the kingdom of animalia, the family of Cheloniidae, of the genus of Lepidochelys. It is also classified as a reptile.

The animal has amazing characteristics that distinguish it from other sea turtles.

If you are looking to improve your knowledge of the olive ridley sea turtle, here are 17 interesting facts to fire you up; you will find them fun too:

1. The word olive attached to the name was derived from the olive greenish color that the shell and skin appears to have.

2. Where do olive ridley sea turtles live? The olive ridley is also called pacific ridley sea turtle. It could be seen around warm and tropical waters, mainly in the pacific, Indian and Atlantic sea habitats.

3. The ridley, though not the smallest in the species of marine turtle, yet it is seen as a small turtle, with associate degree of adult shell length averaging sixty to seventy cm while their weigh ranges from 35 – 45kg.

4. The cordiform shell is characterized by four pairs of pore-bearing inframarginal scutes on the bridge, 2 pairs of prefrontals, and up to nine lateral scutes per facet.

5. What do olive ridley sea turtles eat? Olive ridley have a very strong and powerful jaw which enables them to prey on both plants and flesh effectively, though their main food is flesh but where they do not have access to flesh they feed on algae.

6. The male pacific ridleys could be identified by their tails which grows beyond their shells.

7. The olive ridley is closely related to kemp’s ridley, with both of them dwelling in warm waters, however, they are different in the sense that the head and shell of the olive is a bit smaller compare to that of kemp’s.

Olive ridley sea turtle

The powerful jaw of the olive ridley sea turtle helps them to feed on flesh and plants.

8. The olives could nest either individually or practice what is illustrated as Arribada in Spanish word, used to describe the group nesting of the olive ridley ocean turtles. Nesting in massive teams could also serve as protection against predators or even as a result of ecological factors that affects nesting.

9. How long do olive ridley sea turtles live? This reptile could live up to thirty to fifty years.

10. In a single season, one olive ridley could nest between one to three times and on each occasion lay up to 100 eggs, these eggs are being incubated for average of 45 to 50 days under normal circumstances but may extend under deprived weather condition before they are hatched.

11. Unlike some turtles that have seasons of nesting, the pacific ridley does not have any particular period they nest, the female only wait for weeks to enable them to lay their eggs at the appropriate timing.

12. Though they are very swift inside the water, however, they are sluggish and helpless on land; the male hardly leaves the sea to land while the female comes to land when they want to lay eggs.

13. Prevailing temperature of the incubated eggs will determine the sex of the hatchling; that is to say, if the temperature is more than 30 0C it will result to female; if it is incubated within the range of 280C or even lesser, it gives birth to male and whereby the temperature is between 29 0C and 30 0C then it will result to a clutch of mixed sex.

Baby olive ridley sea turtle

Baby olive ridley sea turtle making its way to the sea from its natal place.

14. The female olives get sexually matured at a maximum age of fifteen years and nest every year. The pacific ridley is always returning to their natal place where they were born to lay their own eggs.

15. They are in the list of the endangered turtle, often caught for their meats, leather, and their eggs. Apart from their human predator, the olive ridleys are also threatened by sharks.

16. The baby olives have many predators to contend with as they make their journey from the natal place to the sea. The hatchlings are in multitude but greater percentage does not make it to adulthood.

17. The adult of the olive ridley sea turtle is dark grey green color, the younger charcoal grey, while the hatchlings are black when they are wet and greenish at the side.

Do you have additional facts about the olive ridley sea turtle you want to share? Please, do so in the comment box below.

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