Leatherback Sea Turtle

SCIENTIFIC NAME

Dermochelys coriacea

DESCRIPTION

The leatherback sea turtle is the world’s largest reptile. It is significantly larger than all other marine turtles. The leatherback’s body is teardrop-shaped, tapering at the rear to a blunt point. The carapace, or upper shell, can grow to more than 2 m in length, and the turtle can weigh more than 900 kg.

RANGE

The Leatherback Sea Turtle ranges further than any other reptile, with single turtles migrating across entire ocean basins. Leatherbacks can be found in the tropical, temperate, and boreal, or northernmost, waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. They are also found in the Mediterranean Sea.

HABITAT

Leatherback Sea Turtles are powerful swimmers, covering enormous distances in relatively short periods of time. Leatherbacks are one of the world’s deepest-diving vertebrates. The maximum recorded dive depth for a leatherback is 1 270 m. Like all reptiles, the leatherback breathes air. Although it is able to stay under water for more than an hour, a leatherback usually does not spend much more than half an hour beneath the surface.

DIET

The primary reason that Leatherback Sea Turtles migrate north is to feed on jellyfish, which are their principal prey. The turtles will also eat other soft-bodied creatures, such as salps. Salps are soft-bodied, gelatinous, free-swimming marine invertebrates with a transparent barrel-shaped body.

BEHAVIOUR

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PRIMARY ECOSYSTEM ROLES

Leatherback 101: Fact Sheet

When you’re the world’s largest reptile, you can invent your own rules. The leatherback, which can weigh up to 900 kilograms, is the only sea turtle to have a leathery skin on its back instead of a hard shell. It is the only one without claws on its flippers. The leatherback does not have the ability to retract its limbs and head. Because of biological adaptations such as a dark colour and a thick layer of fat, it survives in far colder water than other marine turtles. This means it can travel farther than any reptile on earth—sometimes crossing entire oceans by moving its front flippers like wings.

Feeding

The leatherback sea turtle is likely the fastest growing reptile in the world. Starting their lives as 40- to 50-gram hatchlings, leatherbacks grow 10,000 times this size over the course of their lives.

Hatching and Nesting

The leatherback sea turtle population faces extreme challenges as an endangered species in Canada, but did you know that many of those challenges can occur before the hatchlings even reach the water’s edge?

Migration

Leatherback sea turtles migrate farther than any other reptile on Earth. En route to nesting and feeding grounds, they can travel across entire ocean basins, including the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.

Backing the Leatherback

<p>Weighing in at a hefty 500 kilograms, the leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) may seem indestructible; however, it is listed as endangered in Canada by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and listed as critically endangered across the globe by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). </p>

Leatherback Sea Turtle

SCIENTIFIC NAME

DESCRIPTION

RANGE

HABITAT

DIET

BEHAVIOUR

PRIMARY ECOSYSTEM ROLES

Leatherback 101: Fact Sheet

Feeding

Hatching and Nesting

Migration

Backing the Leatherback

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