Classroom lesson 路 Wildlife馃嚬馃嚪 Turkey

Loggerhead sea turtles

Mothers swim hundreds of kilometres back to the exact beach they were born on

A loggerhead sea turtle swimming in the blue Mediterranean Sea

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Loggerhead sea turtles are big sea turtles named after their large, strong heads. Every summer they swim back to Turkey's southern beaches to lay their eggs. The mother turtles travel hundreds of kilometres across the sea, and somehow find their way back to the exact beach where they themselves were born.

Tell me more

An adult loggerhead is about a metre long - roughly the size of a coffee table - and can weigh up to 150 kilograms. They have a heart-shaped shell and a powerful jaw that they use to crack open crabs and other shellfish.

On a summer night, a mother loggerhead crawls up the beach (sea turtles can't walk well on land). She digs a deep hole with her back flippers, lays around 100 leathery white eggs, and gently covers them up with sand. Then she crawls back to the sea, leaving the eggs to look after themselves.

About two months later, on a warm night, the babies all hatch at once. Each one is the size of a 50-pence coin. They dig their way up through the sand and then scramble as fast as they can towards the sea, following the light of the moon on the water. The dash to the sea is the most dangerous moment of a turtle's whole life.

Beaches in Turkey, like Iztuzu near the town of Dalyan, are protected during nesting season. The sand is roped off, lights are kept low, and volunteers count the nests. Hatchlings get a clear, dark path to follow to the sea. The same beaches have been used by loggerheads for thousands of years.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01How might a turtle find its way back to the exact same beach after years away at sea?
  2. 02Why might it be important to keep the beach dark when babies are hatching?
  3. 03What other animals do you know that look after their babies very differently from humans?
Try this

Classroom activity

Mark out a 5-metre 'beach' across the classroom or playground with chalk. One pupil is the baby turtle in the sand. The rest of the class is the sea. How fast can the baby turtle scramble across the beach without anyone catching them? Take turns.