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Green sea turtle Chelonia mydas
Photograph by Michael Feistel
Fast facts
- Female lays around 600 eggs per season
- Nesting takes place on Indian Ocean islands
Green turtles, as their name implies, are olive-green in colour with a relatively smooth carapace.
They have a short snout and their beak is not hooked as in the loggerhead turtle.
Adult green turtles feed mainly on seaweed and seagrass and thus can often be seen close inshore, basking at the surface.
Female green turtles lay up to 150 eggs every 12 days or so, totalling approximately 600 eggs per season. Nesting occurs on the islands off Mozambique and other Indian Ocean islands.
On some of these islands, green turtles have been hunted almost to extinction.
Download the document below to read more about turtles.