Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758)
Animalia (Kingdom) > Chordata (Phylum) > Vertebrata (Subphylum) > Gnathostomata (Infraphylum) > Tetrapoda (Megaclass) > Reptilia (Superclass) > Testudines (Order) > Cryptodira (Suborder) > Chelonioidea (Superfamily) > Cheloniidae (Family) > Chelonia (Genus) > Chelonia mydas (Species)
Sub Species: Chelonia mydas agassizii (Bocourt, 1868) accepted as Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758)
Other names: Green turtle
Vernacular names:
- Tamil: Paer Aamai/ Patchai Aamai/ Patchaamai
- Telugu: Aakupacha tabelu / nalupu tabelu
- Odisa: Sabuj Kainch
- Bengali: Jalpai kachchhap
- Malayalam: Pacha Kadalaama
- Kannada: Hasiru aame
- Marathi: Hirva Samudra Kasav
- Gujarathi: Lilo dariyayi kachbo
- Hindi: Hare samudri kachue
Identifying characters
- Largest hard-shelled sea turtle.
- In adults, carapace varying in color from black to gray to greenish or brown, often with bold streaks or spots, and a yellowish white plastron. Only one claw in each flipper.
- It has only one pair of scales in front of the eyes (Prefrontal scales).
IUCN Red List Category and Criteria
Endangered A2bd ver 3.1,
Date assessed: 30 April 2004, Year Published: 2004
Movement patterns: Fully Migrant
Geographic range:
NATIVE
Extant (breeding)
Guinea; Guinea-Bissau
Extant (resident)
American Samoa; Angola; Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Australia (Queensland, Coral Sea Is. Territory, Western Australia, Ashmore-Cartier Is., Northern Territory); Bahrain; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belize; Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (Bonaire, Saba, Sint Eustatius); Brazil; British Indian Ocean Territory; China; Christmas Island; Cocos (Keeling) Islands; Colombia; Comoros; Cook Islands; Costa Rica; Cuba; Curacao; Cyprus; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Ecuador (Galápagos); Egypt; Equatorial Guinea (Bioko); Eritrea; Fiji; French Guiana; French Polynesia; French Southern Territories (Mozambique Channel Is.); Grenada; Guam; Guyana; Haiti; India (Nicobar Is., Andaman Is., Gujarat, Laccadive Is.); Indonesia (Jawa, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Papua, Kalimantan, Bali, Maluku, Lesser Sunda Is.); Iran, Islamic Republic of; Jamaica; Japan (Honshu, Ogasawara-shoto, Nansei-shoto); Kenya; Kiribati; Kuwait; Madagascar; Malaysia (Sarawak, Sabah, Peninsular Malaysia); Maldives; Marshall Islands; Martinique; Mauritania; Mauritius (Rodrigues); Mayotte; Mexico (Tamaulipas, Baja California, Veracruz, Yucatán, Revillagigedo Is., Michoacán, Tabasco, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Sonora); Micronesia, Federated States of ; Mozambique; Myanmar; New Caledonia; New Zealand (Kermadec Is., South Is., North Is.); Nicaragua; Niue; Northern Mariana Islands; Oman; Pakistan; Palau; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Puerto Rico; Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (Ascension); Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Martin (French part); Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Sao Tome and Principe; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Sint Maarten (Dutch part); Solomon Islands; Somalia; Sri Lanka; Suriname; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Timor-Leste; Tokelau; Tonga; Trinidad and Tobago; Turkey; Turks and Caicos Islands; Tuvalu; United Arab Emirates; United States (Hawaiian Is., Florida); United States Minor Outlying Islands (US Line Is., Midway Is.); Vanuatu; Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of (Aves I., Venezuelan Antilles); Viet Nam; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S.; Yemen
Possibly Extinct
Israel
Extinct
Cayman Islands; Mauritius
Extant & Reintroduced
Bermuda
Presence Uncertain & Vagrant
Namibia; Pitcairn; Portugal (Madeira, Azores); Singapore; South Africa; Spain (Canary Is.); Wallis and Futuna
Presence Uncertain & Origin Uncertain
Bahamas; Benin; Cabo Verde; Cambodia; Cameroon; Chile; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Côte d’Ivoire; Djibouti; El Salvador; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Guadeloupe; Guatemala; Honduras; Liberia; Montserrat; Nigeria; Qatar; Samoa; Sudan; Taiwan, Province of China; Togo; Western Sahara
Size: 80 to 110cm.
Weight: 110 to 185 kg, Maximum record: 245 to 410 kg.
Habitat: Marine Neritic, Marine Oceanic, Marine Intertidal, Marine Coastal/Supratidal, Inhabit open seas and they also tend to stay close to seashore for mating & nesting.
Food: Being herbivore, the diet consists of marine plants like seagrass and seaweeds.
Breeding season: May and June.
Nesting intensity: 4 to 6 times/season.
Average Clutch size: 100 to 120 eggs.
Maximum Clutch size observed: 90 to 130 eggs.
Egg size: Spherical and about 6 cm in diameter.
Survival rate: Highest survival rate among other sea turtle species.
Problem: Plastic bags.
Natural Predators: Shorebirds and mongooses, genets, coyotes, dogs, coatis, raccoons, monitor lizards, ghost crabs ranging from little plovers to large gulls in shore. sharks, requiem, cephalopods and various large fish in seas and ocean.
