Caring for an endangered visitor
- Posted By
28th Nov, 2020
- The olive Ridley Turtle has started nesting at the eastern coast.
- There are about six sporadic Olive Ridley nesting spots along the coast of Visakhapatnam district from Pudimadaka in the south to Bheemunipatnam in the east.
- Gahirmatha or Rushikulya are the mass nesting centres and turtles there come in thousands.
- They generally look for white beaches with a slope or gradient and that is how the beaches along the Visakhapatnam coast provide them a natural setting.
- Their mating time is 40 to 45 days and thereafter the males go back to their habitat, while females come for nesting.
- The mature females go back to their living area after the nesting period.
- The Nesting period is generally from November to March, and the peak being from January to February-end.
- The mature female turtles come to the shore during high tide and lay the eggs.
- Each turtle lays 100 to 150 eggs and 80 to 90 of them hatch successfully. But the survival rate for the hatchlings at sea is said to be 1 out of every 1,000.
Where is there habitat?
- The Olive Ridley turtles have their habitat in the Southern Atlantic, Pacific Ocean or Indian Ocean.
- Olive ridleys are found only in warmer waters.
- They are migratory species and their breeding area and living area are different.
Olive Ridley turtles
- The olive ridley sea turtleis also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle.
- They are currently the most abundant of all sea turtles.
- Oliveridleys are the smallest of the sea turtles.
- They are recognized as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red list.
Why they are vulnerable?
- Their vulnerable status comes from the fact that they nest in a very small number of places, and therefore any disturbance to even one nest beach could have huge repercussions on the entire population.