40 Fun Facts About Hawksbill Sea Turtle

Which reef animals, many bristling with glass-like needles, make up most of a hawksbill sea turtle's diet?

Sea sponges make up 70 to 95 percent of a Caribbean hawksbill's meals, and no other reptile is known to live mainly on them. It is picky, eating certain kinds and ignoring many others.

A hawksbill sea turtle filmed on a 2015 night dive was the first reptile known to show which trait?

Biofluorescence, a red and green glow under blue light, was first reported in a reptile after a marine biologist filming corals in the Solomon Islands met this turtle by chance.

What decides whether a hawksbill sea turtle egg, buried in beach sand, hatches as a male or a female?

Nest temperature settles it: warmer sand produces females and cooler sand produces males. Hotter beaches could leave a population short of males.

Which country, where hawksbill shell is called bekko, imported tons of it yearly until a 1990s halt?

Japan imported about 30 tonnes of raw hawksbill shell a year, carving it into eyeglass frames and picks for the three-stringed shamisen.

Hawksbill sea turtle hatchlings crawl toward which visual cue to find the sea, a habit beachfront lighting can hijack?

The brightest horizon on a wild beach is the open sky over the water, so hatchlings head for it. Artificial lights behind the beach can pull them inland instead.

Which ancient European people, alongside the Greeks, harvested hawksbill sea turtle shells for combs, brushes and rings?

The Romans treated turtle shell as a luxury: wealthy households had thin veneers of it inlaid into furniture, especially the couches they dined on.

Which IUCN Red List category was the hawksbill sea turtle moved into in 1996, after an 80 percent decline?

Critically endangered is the highest risk category for an animal still living in the wild. Hawksbills were moved up to it after their numbers fell by four-fifths in three generations.

The plates on a hawksbill sea turtle's shell are made mostly of which protein?

Keratin, the stuff of horns, beaks and nails, forms the outer plates. Thin slices of it once went into small boxes, furniture inlays and guitar picks.

Which naturalist gave the hawksbill sea turtle its first scientific name in 1766, calling it Testudo imbricata?

Carl Linnaeus named it in the 12th edition of his Systema Naturae. In 1843 an Austrian zoologist, Leopold Fitzinger, moved it into the genus it still has today.

The hawksbill sea turtle shares the family Cheloniidae with every living sea turtle except which giant species?

Leatherback turtles sit alone in a family of their own because they lack a bony shell, wearing flexible, leathery skin over oily flesh instead.

Eating the meat of a hawksbill sea turtle has caused mass poisonings and deaths for which reason?

Toxins from its prey build up in the turtle's flesh without harming the turtle itself. Its eggs and meat are still eaten in many countries all the same.

Which treaty bans international trade in hawksbill sea turtle products by listing the species in Appendix I?

CITES gives every sea turtle species its strictest level of protection. Illegal hunting for hawksbill shell still goes on in many parts of the world.

Hawksbill sea turtles shut their eyes while eating which stinging drifter, whose cells cannot pierce their heads?

Portuguese man o' war stings are dangerous to swimmers, but the turtle's armored head shrugs them off. Only its unprotected eyes need shutting.

Which small mammal raids hawksbill sea turtle nests in the US Virgin Islands soon after the eggs are laid?

Mongoose raiders dig up the fresh nests of hawksbills and other sea turtles alike. Egg thieves add to the pressure from pollution and lost nesting beaches.

Which shape is a young hawksbill sea turtle's upper shell before it lengthens with age?

Heart-shaped shells mark the hatchlings, which are mostly brown when they leave the nest. The shell lengthens as the turtle matures.

Which country's blue banknote, first printed in 2001, carries a hawksbill sea turtle on its reverse side?

Brazil chose the hawksbill, one of five sea turtle species found along its coast, for the back of its two-real note.

In the eastern Pacific, large hawksbill sea turtle populations live in which habitat rather than on reefs?

Mangrove estuaries from El Salvador to Ecuador shelter a population that, as late as 2007, scientists had largely written off as wiped out in the region.

Roughly how many hawksbill sea turtles did the international shell trade kill between 1844 and 1992?

About 9 million hawksbills were killed for their shells in that century and a half, most of them in the Pacific Ocean basin.

The hawksbill sea turtle's genus name Eretmochelys joins the Greek word for turtle with the word for which object?

An oar is what the turtle's long front flippers looked like to the zoologist who coined the name in 1843, so Eretmochelys means oar-turtle.

The species name imbricata describes which feature of the plates on a hawksbill sea turtle's shell?

They overlap like shingles on a roof, which gives the rear edge of the shell a jagged look often compared to a saw or a steak knife.

What are the thick plates covering a hawksbill sea turtle's shell called, the part once carved into ornaments?

Scutes were peeled from the shell with heat, then boiled soft and pressed flat. Every step took great care so the colors were not lost.

Where do adult hawksbill sea turtles usually rest during the day, tucked out of sight?

Caves and ledges shelter resting hawksbills around the clock. The turtle's sturdy shell lets it wedge itself into surprisingly tight gaps.

Where do hawksbill sea turtle hatchlings shelter for their first one to five years after leaving the beach?

Floating algal mats and lines of drifting debris hide the young turtles on the open sea. Later the juveniles move to shallower coastal feeding grounds.

Which place do female hawksbill sea turtles return to for egg-laying, often decades after last seeing it?

Their own birthplace region draws them back every one to five years. In a single season a female may dig three to five nests there.

In the continental United States, rare hawksbill sea turtle nests are found mainly on which state's southeast coast?

Florida sees only a few nests, on its southeast coast and in the Keys. The busiest US nesting beaches are far to the south, in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Which feature tells an adult male hawksbill sea turtle from a female?

A longer, thicker tail marks the male, along with longer claws and somewhat brighter coloring. Males and females grow to the same size.

What does the narrow, pointed beak of a hawksbill sea turtle help it do on a reef?

It can reach food in crevices, poking into small holes and cracks in the reef. That hawk-like beak is also where the turtle's common name comes from.

The hawksbill is one of how many living sea turtle species, most of them threatened with extinction?

Seven species survive, and the smallest, Kemp's ridley, does about 95 percent of its nesting in a single Mexican state, Tamaulipas.

How does a hawksbill sea turtle shed the excess salt it takes in from seawater and its food?

By crying salty tears: a gland in each eye socket makes tears saltier than seawater, a job that reptile kidneys cannot manage.

Which big fish is among the few predators able to get past an adult hawksbill sea turtle's tough shell?

Tiger shark attacks are one of the few dangers a grown hawksbill faces, along with crocodiles, groupers, octopuses and people.

Female hawksbill sea turtles usually dig their nests in which part of a small, isolated pocket beach?

High up, under vegetation is the usual spot, often reached in the dark over a rocky approach with little or no sand.

A hawksbill sea turtle first tagged in 1990 returned in 2020 to Rosemary Island, off which country's coast?

Australia's Rosemary Island, in the Dampier Archipelago, has had volunteers watching its hawksbills since 1986. The returning turtle was about 60 years old.

In the United States, which agency leads hawksbill sea turtle protection on nesting beaches while NOAA covers the sea?

Fish and Wildlife Service staff take the lead once a turtle crawls ashore. The two agencies have shared the job this way since 1977.

A hawksbill sea turtle that nested on Buck Island in the US Virgin Islands was tracked 1,160 miles to which country?

Nicaragua's Miskito Cays turned out to be her feeding grounds. Other hawksbills, such as Hawaii's, stay within their own island chain.

Which Indian Ocean nation, home to Cousine Island, has legally protected its nesting hawksbill sea turtles since 1994?

Seychelles hawksbills have shown some recovery under that protection, and young turtles gather to feed around the country's inner islands.

Which Pacific nation's Arnavon group shelters a hawksbill sea turtle nesting ground, community-protected since 1995?

Solomon Islands communities manage the Arnavon reserve themselves, the first such marine conservation area in the country. Its turtles swim up to 1,000 miles to feed.

At which time of day do hawksbill sea turtle hatchlings usually break out of the nest and race seaward?

At night, after about two months in the sand, the hatchlings dig their way out. Any still on the beach at daybreak are easy pickings for shorebirds and crabs.

Despite its strong taste for one reef animal, the hawksbill sea turtle is classed as which kind of feeder?

Omnivore is the label, because the turtle also eats marine algae, mollusks, crustaceans and small fish. In Hawaii it takes whatever it can find.

Hawksbill sea turtle tracks in beach sand look lopsided because the turtle moves its flippers in which way?

In alternating steps, which leaves an asymmetrical trail. A green turtle crawls with a more even gait, so its track looks symmetrical instead.

Turtle-shell inlay, mostly hawksbill, became a hallmark of André-Charles Boulle, cabinetmaker to which French king?

Louis XIV employed Boulle, who layered thin slices of shell with metal and wood. The style is still called Boulle work after him.