Loggerhead Sea Turtles

These beautifully colored sea turtles got their name because their oversized head sort of looks like a big log.

Within their heads are powerful jaws, which loggerheads use for crushing prey like conchs, horseshoe crabs, and other animals with hard shells. They also eat softer foods like jellyfish, fish, seaweed, and a brown algae called sargassum.
Loggerheads live in oceans all over the world, except in the coldest seas. There are more loggerheads in the waters of the United States than any other species of sea turtle. Even so, loggerheads are threatened by many things, including predators, pollution, human development in the turtles' nesting areas, and fishing nets.

A female loggerhead sea turtle may travel thousands of miles to return to the beach where she hatched as a baby to lay her own eggs as an adult. A loggerhead female generally nests every two to three years. After mating, she heads to shore to lay her eggs.

On average, she'll lay eggs four times in one nesting season. Each time, she comes ashore and uses her front flippers to clear a spot in dry sand. Then she uses her hind flippers to dig her nesting hole. She positions herself so that her eggs fall gently into the hole as she lays them.

Even in the buried nest, the loggerhead eggs may fall prey to hungry raccoons or wild pigs that dig them up. But the eggs that remain undisturbed hatch about 60 days after being laid. Hatchlings dig their way up through the sand toward the surface and wait just underneath the last layer of sand until nightfall.

Once cooler temperatures signal that the sun has set, the hatchlings pop the rest of the way out and scurry toward the ocean. On that dangerous journey to the water, they face raccoons once again, as well as crabs, birds, and other predators. 

Another danger the hatchlings face is what's called disorientation. By instinct, hatchlings head toward the brightest horizon, which is normally the horizon over the sea. 

But in places where there is human development, like stores or houses, the bright light from these areas draws the turtles away from the sea instead of toward it. Babies that head toward the artificial light usually die.

Even when these little loggerheads do make it safely to the ocean, they have to dodge predators in the water, such as sharks and other fish. (In fact, loggerheads have to be on the lookout for sharks their entire lives, no matter how big they get.)

Laws prohibit people from harming loggerheads and other sea turtles. Sea turtles live in the water, but they must surface to breathe. And when they do, they can get hit by boats. They also frequently get tangled in fishing nets and drown. So laws require certain nets to have a device that allows sea turtles to escape if they get caught. These devices are called "turtle excluder devices."

Many of the beaches where sea turtles nest are protected by law too. People are prohibited from harming either the nesting loggerhead females or their eggs. Loggerhead sea turtles face many challenges, but people can help the species by protecting them in the sea as well as on shore.

FAST FACTS
The scientific name of the loggerhead sea turtle is Caretta caretta.

A loggerhead sea turtle can live to be more than 50 years old in the wild.

The loggerhead sea turtle is a threatened species. This means that they are likely to become an endangered species.
There are seven species of sea turtle: loggerhead, leatherback, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, olive ridley, green, and flatback. All sea turtles are protected by law.

An adult loggerhead is about 36 inches (90 centimeters) long. It weighs, on average, about 250 pounds (113 kilograms).
Newly hatched loggerheads are about two inches (5 centimeters) long. For the first 7 to 12 years of its life, a young loggerhead lives far out at sea. As hatchlings, they find the ocean currents that will carry them away from shore. Only when older do the sea turtles live or linger in waters nearer shore.  Adults often live in bays and estuaries.

In addition to natural predators, loggerheads face danger from pollution and trash in the ocean. They are also at risk from boats when they swim near shore, where they're often injured or killed when they collide with boats or are hit by their propellers. 

The shell on the back of a turtle is called the carapace, while the shell on the belly side is called a plastron. A loggerhead's carapace is heart-shaped, and is reddish-brown. Its plastron is yellowish-brown.