Wednesday, June 18th
June's meeting will feature an open discussion on how to maintain your reptiles and amphibians at home as well as our care sheet program. You are welcome to bring your animals to this meeting.
Meetings start promptly at 8pm in the Alumni Room of Medaille College.
Green Sea Turtle
(Chelonia mydas)
Photo Courtesy of World Chelonia Trust
The loggerhead sea turtle is classified as a Threatened species in New York State and the United States. It's reddish-brown in color and reaches lenths of about three feet and weighs up to 300 pounds.
Loggerhead sea turtles are probably the most common sea turtle and are found all over the world. In the western Atlantic loggerheads range from the Canadian Maritime Provinces south to Argentina and are the only sea turtle that will still often nest on the U. S. Atlantic coast. These nests can be found on beaches from New Jersey to Texas. They can often be found in the warmer waters of the continental shelves as well as estuaries, coastal streams, and salt marshes.
The loggehead sea turtle has large powerful jaws that help it feed on crustaceans like crabs as well as jellyfish, mollusks and the occational fish and eelgrass.
Most nesting occurs in temperate waters north of the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, though there is a small population that nest in the western Carribean. About 90% of nests occur in Florida. Female loggerhead sea turtles lay their eggs at night and can nest up to seven times every 14 days in a season. A typical nest contains 100 to 125 eggs which will hatch in 55 to 65 days. Hatchligs emerge at night and spend their first year in mats of sargassum weed and other flotsam. Loggerhead sea turtles reach sexual maturity in 10 to 15 years and are estimated to have a lifespan of about 30 years.
In many parts of the world the loggerhead turtle and their eggs are still hunted. In the U. S. the main threat to the loggerhead is from raccoons and wild boar. Raccoon's have been known to destroy 95% of the eggs in a nesting area.
The loggerhead sea turtle does not nest in New York State, but they can still become stranded on or near the shore. A Standing Network was created in 1980 with the cooperation of the New York State Department of Conservation, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Riverhead Foundation. If a standing is sighthed please contact the hotline at (516) 369-9829. Calling the hotline will enable the Marine Biologists at Riverhead to handle the standed or dead turtles.
Because of the high rates of sea turtle mortality in trawl nets the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued regulations requiring shrimp trawlers to have Turtle Excluder Devices (TED) on all of their nets. The TED allows turtles and other large marine animals to escape in case they accidently enter the net.
Remember that in many places it is illegal to take wildlife out of the wild without the proper permits from local, state, or federal authorities. Please do not release any captive reptiles or amphibians into the wild as this will disrupt the natural order of our environment. See our amphibian and reptile adoptions page for more information on what to do with unwanted herps.
Help further herpetology research and education by donating to the Marvin R. Aures Herpetological Grant