#leatherback

TheSeri, or Comcaac, people of the Sonora coast have had a long and important relationship with the leatherback.  Considered to be one of their five creator deities, the capture and release of a leatherback is cause for ceremony and celebrations.  In recent years, however, the nation has noticed the drastic decline of the leatherback population and decided to take action.  The new conservation movement, called Grupo Tortuguero Comaac, consists of both elders and youths and uses both modern technology and tradition knowledge to monitor turtle populations and research their foraging habits.  Five person teams consisting of an elder, two younger team members, and two trainees make monitoring expeditions into the Canal de Infiernillo, the center of Seri territory and a site of extreme importance for migrating juvenile turtles.  This has proven an effective means of both monitoring local turtle populations and passing traditional knowledge on to the younger generations.

Theleatherback turtle has no teeth.  Instead, its throat is lined with backwards-pointing spines designed to snag prey and prevent it from escaping once the turtle bites down.

During the breeding season, a female leatherback turtle will return to a sandy beach in the same region where she was born.  At night, when the chances of predation are lowest, she will haul herself up onto the sand, dig a pit, and lay her eggs.  She may lay up to nine clutches of over one hundred eggs, with nine days passing in between the laying of each clutch.  

Nesting season is the only time adult leatherbacks will be found on the land, and the animals will consist only of females.  Once a male leatherback has entered the sea, he will never leave it.

The leatherback turtle eats your soul jellyfish and the backward-pointing spines in its mouth help to keep its prey from slipping out. They go all the way down its gullet.

Image sources: TYKIWDBIandNOAA

Happy #TurtleTuesday! Hatchling Leatherback Sea Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) and Adult Hawksbill Sea Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). #SciArt from Our #Reptiles and #Batrachians (1893) by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke. Contributed for digitization by the Research Library of the American Museum of Natural History (@amnh) to #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary. https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/11090530
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