Q 01/05

A nesting loggerhead appears to weep on the beach because glands behind its eyes are doing which job?

A) Cooling the brain

B) Shedding excess salt

C) Flushing out beach sand

D) Moistening the eggs

Answer · why

B) Shedding excess salt

Shedding excess salt is the glands' real job, because a loggerhead takes in seawater as it feeds. Out of the water, the briny runoff simply looks like...

Q 02/05

What decides whether a loggerhead hatchling is male or female during the two months its egg spends buried?

A) Size of the egg

B) Father's chromosomes

C) Nest temperature

D) Phase of the moon

Answer · why

C) Nest temperature

Nest temperature decides it: warmer sand produces females and cooler sand males. Beaches that ran unusually hot for three years hatched broods that we...

Q 03/05

Adelita the loggerhead became the first animal tracked by satellite across an ocean when she swam to which country?

A) Australia

B) Japan

C) Chile

D) Indonesia

Answer · why

B) Japan

Japan was Adelita's destination in 1996, a swim of about 14,500 km. It was evidence that loggerheads feeding off Mexico go back to breed on shores a w...

Q 04/05

A loggerhead may swallow a floating plastic bag because it resembles which drifting prey eaten on open-sea crossings?

A) Squid eggs

B) Sea sponges

C) Jellyfish

D) Flying fish

Answer · why

C) Jellyfish

Jellyfish are a staple for loggerheads crossing open water, and a drifting bag looks much the same. Swallowed plastic can block the gut and leave a tu...

Q 05/05

Unlike a box turtle or a tortoise, what is a loggerhead sea turtle unable to do with its shell?

A) Feel touch through it

B) Heal cracks in it

C) Grow it with age

D) Pull its head inside

Answer · why

D) Pull its head inside

Pull its head inside is beyond a loggerhead, and its flippers stay out too. The shell still works as armor, and an adult's sheer bulk deters all but t...