Three of the seven species of sea turtles living today are regularly observed in the Mediterranean Sea: Caretta-Caretta (Caretta-Caretta), green (Chelonia Mydas) and leatherback (Dermochelys Coriacea). But only the first two species breed there and on the Turkish coast inclusive.
The most common species is Caretta Caretta, but green turtles are found only in the Eastern Mediterranean, where the water temperature is higher. Their main breeding grounds are on the beaches of the South-East coast of Turkey - Kazanli (Kazanlı), Akyatan (Akyatan) and Samandag (Samandağ).
Caretta Caretta turtles are on the list of endangered animals. The fact is that for a long time they were considered a delicacy not only on Far East, but also in some European countries(for example, France and Italy).
These marine reptiles have been living on Earth for 95 million years. Adult turtles reach a size of 115-150 cm, while their weight is about 70-90 kg. They feed mainly on plant foods. They live in colonies. The average life expectancy usually does not exceed 70 years.
Caretta-Caretta lays eggs only once every two to three years. Turtles go out onto the sand and, using their hind legs, dig several holes, then, choosing, in their opinion, the most suitable one, they lay eggs there. One turtle can dig up to 80-100 holes, but it will lay all its eggs in only one of them. The process of laying eggs lasts for hours and experts say that the female turtle does not experience positive emotions at all at this moment.
This exhausting procedure for turtles lasts about 60 days (from May to July). And from July to September, small turtles begin to appear. They say that males are hatched at a temperature of 28.5 ° C, but for females, heat is required more - 32 ° C.
The cubs, hatched on the appointed day, get out of the hole and, guided by the moon, head towards the sea, carried away by instinct. During the period when the little turtles hatch from eggs, it is forbidden to kindle a fire or light a light, because it can deceive the cubs and they will go astray. They should have time to get to the water before dawn and the heat came. Latecomers are destroyed by the hot rays of the sun or become food for birds. One of the most dangerous enemies on earth they have is a fox. Of course, even once at sea, the cubs cannot be considered completely safe. Not reaching a certain size, they serve as tasty food for fish.
Instinct again leads adults to the place where they were born. Having hatched in one place, they return there already in order to give life to a new generation.
There are 17 beaches in Turkey where sea turtles lay eggs, among them the most important are, for example, Iztuzu, Patara, the delta of the Gösu River (Gösu), Belek - all of them have the status of protected zones.
By the way, in Dalyan, in addition to Caretta-Caretta, you can also observe the Nile tortoises (Trionyx Tringulus), which live in the river-channel.
And if you want to compare the Nile turtles that live in the Dalyan Delta with Caretta Caretta, then you)
One of the attractions of Dalyan is the Caretta-Caretta sea turtles, who have chosen Iztuzu Beach for laying eggs.
Some information about Caretta-Caretta, gleaned from the posters of the Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center:
Caretta Caretta is a sea turtle that lives in the Mediterranean Sea. The turtle lives in the sea and comes out on land only to lay eggs. Under water can swim at a depth of up to 200 meters. It can continuously remain under water for 15-25 minutes.
Turtles are carnivores. They have no teeth, but the jaw is powerful and the palate is very sharp. They feed on fish, crabs, crayfish and any other small fry.
At 25-30 years old they reach sexual maturity. Out of 100 turtles, only 3-5 lucky ones survive to puberty. They have too many enemies, one of which is a man. Turtles die entangled in fishing nets or plastic bags thrown into the sea...
The female lays eggs every 2-3 years from May to July. Lays eggs in pits/nests dug in the sand at a depth of 50-60 cm. As a rule, there is more than one nest, the female makes from 3 to 5 nests. Laying in different nests takes place at intervals of about 15 days. One nest has an average of 70 eggs. After 45-65 days, the cubs begin to hatch. At a high temperature (+32) females hatch, at a low temperature (+26) - males. At the time set by nature, the cubs, having hatched, climb out of the nest and, obeying intuition, head to the sea.
In Turkey, one of the main places for laying Caretta-Caretta eggs are the beaches of Iztuzu, Patara, Belek. These places have the status of protected areas. Interestingly, sea turtles, wherever they are, always return to the beach where they hatched. And it is on this beach that they lay their eggs. To continue their offspring, they, obeying instinct, travel thousands of kilometers to return to the beach, where they themselves were once born...
On Iztuzu Beach, posters are placed at almost every step, showing the places of clutches and urging tourists not to harm the turtles, which are on the list of endangered animals.
The sign indicates that under it there is a place for laying eggs. On the territory from sun loungers to the white line (on the right in the photo), tourists are asked not to arrange sunbeds, not to put umbrellas and not to dig holes. This area belongs to turtles...
As far as I understand, it’s almost impossible to see Caretta-Caretta outside the tour (Those who want to see the turtles will have to go on a special tour. We didn’t go, but as part of another tour we got a very responsive captain who, to our complaints about the fact that we come to Dalyan, but never managed to see Caretta-Caretta, changed the route and brought us to the place of "hunting" for turtles.
Local residents, feeding the turtles, have developed conditioned reflexes in them and now they successfully use this to entertain tourists. Turtles are lured with blue crabs tied to a rope and thus shown to tourists. Crabs are caught here, in the delta.
Here it is, the blue crab
This is for us) Crab baked in foil. Pretty good. But it's far from king crabs...
And here came the lover of crabs (she is in the first photo)
The turtle moved quite briskly, apparently young and full of energy. Capturing it proved to be quite problematic.
And here it turned out so terrible. Causes association with a bird of prey. The turtle has a large head, hence one of its other names - loggerherd, big-headed sea turtle.
We also met Caretta-Caretta at the Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre. But that is another story...
Title (rus):
Loggerhead, Big-headed Marine, False Carriage
Name (lat):
caretta caretta
Title (eng):
Loggerhead Sea Turtle
Suborder: (Cryptodira) Secret-necked turtles
Superfamily:
(Chelonioidea)
Family: (Cheloniidae) Sea turtles
Subfamily:
(Carettinae)
Genus: (Caretta) Loggerhead / Big-headed Marines
Subspecies:
caretta caretta caretta
Caretta caretta gigas
Description: The length of the carapace is up to 213 cm. The forelimbs are long, flipper-like. The carapace is covered with horny scutes. Weight - 159 kg. Unlike both previous species, it has 5 pairs of costal scutes on its back. Turtles have a pair of blunt claws on their front flippers. The head is very massive, covered with large shields. The upper part protrudes slightly in front of the lower, but does not have such a pronounced beak at the end as the hawksbill. The carapace is colored from above in a characteristic reddish-brown color, the plastron is yellowish-brown. The front paws have two claws. The young of the carapace are dark brown and have pale brown fins.
In males with a lot of testosterone, the central part of the plastron is wrinkled and spongy - this helps it better hold on to the female.
Habitat: Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans from Washington State to Japan, India, the coasts of Kenya and West Africa, from Newfoundland and the British Isles in the north to Chile, Argentina, Australia and South Africa in the south. Also found in the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas. It inhabits mainly lagoons and bays, as well as brackish water marshes and estuaries. big rivers.
Food: Its food consists primarily of animals - crabs and shellfish, as well as fish, jellyfish, sponges. Occasionally, the loggerhead also eats aquatic plants.
Reproduction: Loggerhead nesting sites are scattered along many coasts of islands and mainlands in the tropics and even beyond. So, on the Atlantic coast of America, loggerheads nest up to Virginia. The timing of oviposition varies in different areas; in the Gulf of Mexico it falls in May-July. Having got out on the beach beyond the tide line, the female digs a nest with her hind legs and fills it with rounded eggs (up to 100-126 in number) with a leathery shell, a little more than 4 cm in size each. After 60 days, the turtles hatch from the eggs almost simultaneously, spend several hours in the nest, and then crawl out of the sand in a dense column and run to the sea. Turtles lay eggs every 2-3 or more years. During the season they arrange 4-7 nests with a difference of 12-14 days.
Additionally: View discovered by LINNAEUS, 1758.
Bissa is called a carriage for the fact that it is she who gives "karey" - horn plates, and in loggerhead shell shields are unsuitable for crafts. But the name comes from a large head - large head.
The meat of loggerheads is considered not very tasty, and therefore the turtles themselves are eaten only by some local tribes. But their eggs find admirers everywhere, so the laying of loggerheads is rarely preserved and the number of these turtles has declined sharply, especially in the last 50-100 years, when many hitherto untouched corners of the coasts began to be intensively populated. They are eaten everywhere in various preparations. In Cuba, for example, loggerhead eggs taken from a pregnant female are smoked directly in the oviducts and then sold as sausages. And in Colombia, they prepare a sweet dish, a kind of "candy".
loggerhead or bighead turtle- a large sea turtle with a carapace length of 79 - 114 cm, up to a maximum of 1.22 cm and a weight of 90-136 kg. The front flippers have a pair of blunt claws. There are five pairs of costal scutes on the back (in juveniles with three longitudinal keels).
A massive short head with a rounded muzzle, covered with large shields, and powerful jaw muscles provide the ability to crush thick shells and shells of marine invertebrates. The front flippers have 2 blunt claws. Two pairs of prefrontal shields are located in front of the eyes. There are about 15 marginal scutes (usually 12-13).
The carapace is brown, reddish brown, or olive in color, and the plastron is yellow to cream. The skin is reddish brown. Males have long tails.
The loggerhead turtle has a circumglobal distribution. Almost all nesting sites are located in temperate and subtropical regions. Excluding the western Caribbean, they are located either north of the Tropic of Cancer or south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Some individuals are found in the north of temperate waters and in arctic waters up to 70 °C. sh., in the Barents Sea (near Murmansk), and in the southern hemisphere up to 35 ° S. sh. in the hall area. La Plata, Argentina. In the waters of the USSR, finds were recorded in the Far East (Peter the Great Bay).
Loggerhead swims well on the surface, under water. Sea turtles usually do not need land: they can be many hundreds of kilometers away from the coast for a long time. Turtles sleep and rest afloat and, only when it is time for breeding, rush to the shores of islands and continents. They prefer estuaries, coastal waters and brackish marshes.
Omnivorous predator, feeds on benthic invertebrates (jellyfish, sponges, snails, squid, sometimes fish and seahorses - hippocampus erectus), mainly mollusks and crustaceans, as well as algae - sea zoster ( Zostera marina).
The largest nesting group is known from about. Mesirah (Oman) and from the coast of Florida in the USA. Every year on about. Mesirah nests at least 30,000 females; The number of breeding females in the US is estimated to be between 6,000 and 15,000, most in Florida. Large nesting sites are also known in Australia, the rest are less significant.
Mitochondrial DNA studies have shown that turtles from different nesting sites are genetically different. This discovery suggests that the females return to lay eggs in the places where they were born.
The breeding season is summer and autumn. Big-headed turtles migrate to breeding areas, swimming distances up to 2000-2700 km. During migration, males tend to females by biting them lightly on the neck and shoulders. Mating occurs at any time of the day on the surface of the water. After mating (with one or more males), the female swims to the nesting sites, waits for the night and gets out of the water. Clumsily crawling along sandbanks beyond the boundaries of the tide of sea waves and in dry places of the coast, they arrange their nests. The "cradles" of turtles are primitive - just holes that the females dig with their hind limbs.
The average clutch size in loggerheads is from 100 to 125 round-shaped eggs (weighing 26-47 g), covered with a leathery shell. Usually, females lay eggs 2.5-5.1 cm in diameter 4-7 times per season. Having laid eggs, the turtle fills the hole with sand and crawls into the sea. They may return to nesting sites at intervals of 2-3 years.
Turtles develop within 46-80 (usually 60-65) days. The development period depends on the conditions environment. If it is warm (T 29-30 "C) - development is fast (in this case more females are born), cool (in this case more males are born) - it slows down. Turtles crawl out of egg shells in each nest, as if on command, almost at the same time. Soon they rake the sandy roof above them with their paws and run to the sea. The path to the sea is not long, but dangerous. At this time, a lot of turtles die from the attack of sea birds and land predators. The turtles spend their first year of life in the thickets brown algae - Sargassum.
Puberty in loggerhead turtles occurs at 10-15 years of age. Life expectancy up to 30 years.
by the most dangerous enemy big-headed loggerheads turned out to be a man. There was no mass hunting for the turtles themselves (their meat does not taste very good), but their eggs fell in love. In many nesting areas of turtles, people waited in advance for their appearance, followed the progress of egg laying, and collected them in huge numbers. Big-headed sea turtles do not cause any harm to people.
According to the IUCN Red List classification, the loggerhead is included in the category of "vulnerable" species.
Literature:
1. Key to amphibians and reptiles of the fauna of the USSR. Moscow, "Enlightenment", 1977
2. I. S. Darevsky N. L. Orlov. Rare and endangered animals: amphibians and reptiles. Moscow, 1988
3. Sosnovsky I.P. About rare animals of the world: Book. for students / Art. V.V. Trofimov.- 2nd ed., revised.- M.: Enlightenment, 1987.-192 p.: ill.
4. Translation from English - www.site
The huge sea turtles Caretta-Caretta are already a legend in the Turkish Mediterranean. Sculptures of giant turtles, standing in an embrace, greet guests at the entrance to Belek. During boat trips, guides will certainly promise tourists that they will see turtles alive, and some beaches close after seven in the evening because of these legendary reptiles. But the most important period is autumn, when the tiny Carettas have to overcome the most dangerous path in their lives.
Half past six in the morning, but very warm. The sea is gentle, the air is warm, although it is already autumn. We came to Cirali knowing that the Caretta Caretta turtles are hatching here, and now is the season. You just need to run to the beach in the morning and carefully look at the people walking by. But the sea quickly distracted us. And here, literally 25 meters from us, there is a clear “it”, and we are in chest-deep water. In general, they took us by surprise, but we are behind the cameras - and run. And there already some guys write in a special notebook how many pieces from which hole and at what time they got out.
The people of various colors lined up in two lines and cheered up with the welcoming cries of the kids, of which there were four. Uncles shout at onlookers so that they don’t inadvertently interfere. They drove me away when I was standing half a meter to the side of the turtle track - you never know, maybe the kid wants to turn?
There were four supervisors. And what? Responsible work! One makes notes, the other - with an important blamba on his chest, like the main one. He controls all the movements of the supervisors in relation to the turtles. Another one raises and lowers, and, if necessary, takes away the wire frames that are no longer needed, which are installed above the masonry, while the baby is still in the sand, into a common pile. And he also carries a bucket in which they put completely hopeless, weak turtles. And the fourth, apparently, so for the company.
The cubs hatched on the set day must sit in the sand for another 26 hours, which is probably why supervisors so carefully feel the place of laying. The palm goes vertically into the sand in several places in turn. If “something suspicious”, they use their palms, horizontal movements, layers, to rake the sand to the sides. Probably, being afraid to injure the kids, who have already decided to get out on their own. If they don’t find anything, they all bury it again, make appropriate notes in their notebook and put a wire frame over the masonry - until the next time.
While the turtles are crawling towards the water (and it's funny, the closer to the water, the faster they run, they even jump, as if they feel), the supervisors are very busy important matter. They carefully dig out the masonry - their former home - they all check if there is anything else left there, count the peel, put it back and bury the masonry. And they don't go anywhere until the turtles swim away.
And even if the turtle, which itself is still the size of 3/4 cigarette packs, rolls over, falling off a pebble on the beach, it does not need help. A specially trained uncle helps her in some strange but more effective way. He does not turn her over, but puts a finger on his hand, helping to strain his weak muscles and turn over herself.
As soon as the baby finally and confidently swims away, the supervisors collect their little things and go to the next clutch. The whole crowd is behind them.
Irina IVANOVA
On a note:
Three of the seven species of sea turtles living today are regularly observed in the Mediterranean Sea: Caretta-Caretta (Caretta-Caretta), green (Chelonia Mydas) and leatherback (Dermochelys Coriacea). The most common species is Caretta Caretta, but green turtles are found only in the Eastern Mediterranean, where the water temperature is higher. Their main breeding grounds are on the beaches of the South-East coast of Turkey - Kazanli (Kazanlı), Akyatan (Akyatan) and Samandag (Samandağ).
Turtles Caretta-Caretta are included in the list of endangered species of our planet of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The fact is that for a long time they were considered a delicacy not only in the Far East, but also in some European countries (for example, France and Italy). These marine reptiles feed mainly on plant foods. They live in colonies.
Caretta-Caretta lays eggs only once every two to three years. Turtles go to the sandy shore and, using their hind legs, dig several holes. Then, having chosen, in their opinion, the most suitable one, they lay eggs there. One turtle can dig up to 80-100 holes, but for the entire masonry it will choose only one.
This exhausting procedure for turtles lasts about 60 days (from May to July). From July to September, small turtles begin to appear. They say that males are hatched at a temperature of 28.5 ° C, but for females, heat is required more - 32 ° C.
The cubs, hatched on the appointed day, get out of the hole and, guided by the moon, head towards the sea, carried away by instinct. During the period when the little turtles hatch from eggs, it is forbidden to kindle a fire or light a light, because it can deceive the cubs and they will go astray. You need to get to the water before dawn. Latecomers die from the hot sun or become food for birds. Instinct again leads adults to the place where they were born. Having hatched in one place, they return there already in order to give life to a new generation.
In Turkey, there are 17 beaches where sea turtles lay their eggs, among them the most important are Patara, the Göksu River Delta, Belek - all of them have the status of protected areas.
Interesting Facts:
Turtles Caretta-Caretta live on Earth already 95 million years
Adult turtles reach the size 115-150 cm
Weight - approx. 70-90 kg
Average life span - no more 70 years old
One turtle can dig up to 80-100 holes for laying eggs
Betyuyab on the protection of turtles
Due to the rapid development of tourism in the region, the protection of the endangered Caretta-Caretta tortoise species is now one of the priorities of the Belek Investors Union (Betuyab), according to Bulent Buyukiit, Betuyab's general manager. Every year, from May to August, vigorous work is carried out on the coasts of the region: the installation of barriers, the observation of turtles. For this, the Union invites specialists from all over the world, as well as volunteers - students from Turkey.
The protection of the Caretta-Caretta turtles in Belek is complicated by the fact that all 55 hotels are located on the coast. It's the extra light and sound that scares away the turtles and they just don't go to the beach. However, about 70 baby turtles hatch on the coasts of Belek every year. To continue their kind, turtles choose such hotels in Belek as: Paloma Grida Village, MegaSaray, Xanadu, Kaya, Maritim Pine beach, Rixos, Club Voyage Belek Select, Spice, Arcadia, Magic World, Sun Zeynep, Attalia Village.
Photos for the article
