Green Sea turtle
Green Sea Turtle for colouring in - please feel welcome to print off this image as a gift during this time of having to stay indoors. Love Aleta
Colour me in
Please feel welcome to print this image for your child (or yourself) to colour/paint/collage - you might like to sprinkle some sand around, and on the egg, of this little hatchling (baby turtle). I recommend printing as black and white so not to waste your ink (the paper I use has a warm tint).
COMMON FACTS
What do they look like?
The adult green sea turtle has, as you might guess, a greenish skin, which is covered in beautifully patterned dark shapes, fitting together like a mosaic (where little pieces of stone, glass, broken tiles or other small objects are placed together). Their carapaces (hard shell on their back) are also beautifully patterned and come in different colours – usually a brown-olive green colour, with streaks of yellow or cream. The under part of their shell is a yellow colour. They have a rounded (curved) snout and their front flippers are much bigger than their back flippers. Green sea turtles often look quite grumpy at a quick glance but if you look closely they usually appear to have a gentle smile, and a very wise look about them. Green sea turtles are about 1 meter long! (between 80 and 120cm).
Where do they live?
The green sea turtle enjoys the beautiful tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. If you have a world map, or better still a globe, then you might like to take a look where these oceans are, and imagine these beautiful creatures swimming around here. They particularly like the reef life (living amongst coral reefs), and boy do they look beautiful as they gently glide amongst coloured coral.
What do they do?
Green sea turtles live most of their life swimming gracefully through the ocean foraging (searching for food). They travel incredible distances and have a fascinating (extremely interesting) way of navigating the waters – they use the sun, temperature of the water and have their very own inbuilt compasses! Have you ever used a compass? If not, you might enjoy learning about them with your parents/guardians and if you have one on hand why not give it a try!
Green sea turtles, like other sea turtles, are great explorers and adventurers! They travel very long distances at different times of the year to find new feeding areas, and when females are ready to lay their eggs they often travel back to the beaches where they were born! Here, they lay about 100 beautiful sphere (like a ball) shaped eggs.
Turtles also act like little lawn mowers for the ocean, as they constantly graze on seagrass, which keeps the seagrass tidy and healthy. By doing this, turtles help to create healthy habitats for other sea life.
What do they eat?
The green sea turtle has a different diet depending on its age. When a hatchling (a baby turtle) they are carnivores (meat eaters), eating crabs, jellyfish and sponges. As they become adults they shift to a plant based diet, which we call herbivores, foraging mostly on seagrass and algae, and it is this diet that turns their skin green! Imagine if you turned the colour of your favourite food?! What would that be? Hmmmm, I’d end up brown …. because I loooove chocolate ;)
Who are their predators?
Fortunately, they have very few predators; sharks are the main one. Whilst it would be pretty scary having a shark as a predator (can you imagine!), the most dangerous time for a green turtle is when it is a hatchling (baby turtle) and is making its journey from its nest, on the beach, to the ocean. On this journey it must escape many hungry seagulls and crabs. Very sadly not many survive this journey to the sea. In fact, only about one in every thousand hatchlings survive!
Are they endangered?
Yes. Green sea turtles face several threats throughout their whole life-cycle (from egg to adult). One of the greatest threats is accidently getting caught in fishing nets. The good news is that there are kind and creative people who have invented fishing nets that light up, which reduces the chance of turtles getting caught (and the nets are solar powered – how cool is that!). To learn more about this exciting project you can visit: https://www.worldwildlife.org/magazine/issues/spring-2020/articles/how-led-nets-help-sea-turtles-swim-free
Sea turtles have been enjoying our beautiful planet for more than 100 million years (that is a very very VERY long time!). They are such beautiful creatures, and they play a big role in helping to create healthy habitats for other sea life. We need to do what we can to ensure that green sea turtles can continue to enjoy this beautiful planet for many more years to come. To find out ways you can help the green sea turtle you can visit: http://gbrf.staging.bigfish.tv/you-can-help/take%20action/your-actions
AMAZING FACTS
Green sea turtles live to around 100 years!
Green sea turtles were around when the dinosaurs were here! They are some of the oldest creatures on the planet! The oldest sea turtle fossil is at least 120 million years old!
Female green sea turtles return to the same beach where they were born to lay their eggs! That is pretty incredible when you consider how far they roam to forage.
A hatchlings gender (whether it’s a boy or girl) depends on temperature! It will be born as a male (boy) if the weather is cool and a female (girl) if the weather is warm.
Green sea turtles are amongst our planets greatest explorers! The female has been found to travel more than 2,600kms while on their migration journey from their feeding grounds to the beaches to lay their eggs. 2,600 kms is a VERY long distance! It’s pretty much the same distance as going from Sydney to Alice Springs, in the middle of Australia!
ACTIVITY IDEAS
Take action to save turtles! Send a picture of your coloured turtle, with a short sentence about how much you care for turtles and want their habitat to be protected, to your local MP and the Minister for the Environment (Sussan Ley sussan.ley.mp@aph.gov.au) Parents, you might like to get creative and political and post your childs art and hashtag the relevant people and bodies who are responsible for looking after our oceans. Please let me know if you do this – I’d love to see what impact we can make with our art!
Compass activity – if you have access to a compass you might like to go to your local park and identify where North, South, East and West are. It can be a bit tricky but a fun challenge!
Eat like a turtle! Be like a green sea turtle for a day and eat as many green foods as you can – I’m not suggesting you eat seagrass and algae but what about some cucumber, green capsicum, lettuce, spinach, green apples, zucchini, avocado, or maybe even seaweed!
Dig a hole with your feet! You could do this at the beach (when they re-open for play), a garden if you have one, or otherwise you could simply lay on the floor and imagine digging up sand with your back flippers.
Mosaic pattern activity – if you enjoy craft you might like to cut up some coloured pieces of paper (you could colour your own paper with paint or pencils if you don’t have any) and glue them down on a piece of cardboard/paper, leaving little gaps between each piece. You could make lovely patterns if you have lots of different colours. You might like to take a look at a green sea turtles skin and shell to get some ideas (and while you do this, take a moment to marvel at how beautiful nature is). A note to parents: if you want to get creative, you might like to draw an outline of a turtle from a birds eye view so your children can mosaic the shell - i did this for my girls and they loved it!
Map time! - Identify where green sea turtles live (the Atlantic and Pacific oceans) on a map or globe.
Draw yourself and colour yourself the colour of your favourite foods - remember green sea turtles are green because they eat green seagrass and algae.
measuring and weighing activity - If you like numbers, you might like to measure yourself and mark out 1 meter to compare yourself to the average size of a green sea turtle. If you enjoy that (and if you have scales at home) you could find out how heavy you are compared to a green sea turtle. Green sea turtles weigh between 70- 180kgs! Can you work out with your parents how many of you that is?
Documentary
Here is a beautiful short (2.5 minutes) segment of David Attenborough’s Planet Earth documentary, on the green sea turtle:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE0qp3Yje6Q
If you want to know what it’s like to swim around with a turtle then here is a beautiful 3min clip. This video has no commentary, the only sound is that made by the turtle you are swimming with. A camera has been attached to the turtle: https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/species/green-turtle/rivers-to-reef-to-turtles#gs.3yd4hh
References and more information
https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/sea-turtles
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/g/green-sea-turtle/