Loggerhead Turtle Research Paper

Overwintering is a phenomena that describes where animals will spend their time during the winter months. One specific group of animals that has unusual overwintering patterns is turtles, with turtle species some may hibernate for the winter months while others move to warmer climates and return when winter is over. When looking at turtle species there are very many, I will be focusing on the effects that overwintering has the loggerhead turtles. Loggerhead turtles are an aquatic turtle and can be found in oceanic environments such as the Gulf of Mexico. Though it does not become extremely cold near the warmer areas of the hemisphere these turtles still retreat to find warmer weather to maintain their body temperatures and maintain a safe …show more content…
Not all loggerhead turtles migrate to warmer waters, some like to stay and lay along the bottom of the ocean. The problem these bottom dwelling turtles have when they lay along the sea floor is that they become prone to being caught in nets from the net-based fisheries along the coast (Broderick et al. 2007). When bottom feeding turtles try to overwinter on the ocean floor they then become threatened by not only fishing boats, but also the low temperatures that the water is falling to. Not all loggerhead turtles exhibit these same overwintering patterns, a study was conducted by Broderick that studied ten female loggerhead turtles and tracked their migratory routes over a course of eight years and then visited these populations again in 2-5 year intervals to see if the turtles were still following these routes. Results showed that the female turtles extremely similar routes, and returned to the same forging and breeding grounds. These turtles made journeys to foraging grounds in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey all the way from their starting point in Cyprus (Broderick et al. 2007). Loggerhead turtles showed high retention rates to their migratory routes, foraging areas and wintering sites between multiple years of successive breeding migrations. These turtles stay in warmer climates until warmer months return in the spring. After …show more content…
A U-dive turtle spends a large proportion of the total dive time at the maximum dive depth; during V-dives the turtle dives to the maximum dive depth and re-ascend without spending a large amount of time at that depth. During S-dives turtles dive to the maximum depth and then return immediately with few short and fast ascent, followed up with a reduced ascent rate. Lastly, Type-3 dives are like S-dives without the initial deep ascent, so the slow ascent starts immediately when finally reaching the max depth (Hochscheid et al. 2007). Different types of timed dives as well as underwater dormancy are another form of overwintering that loggerhead turtles can chose from when winter months come upon them. With these successive reproductive evolutions the young turtles are becoming able to survive the cold winter months. These extraordinary animals have evolved to be able to suite themselves to many different climates, they are able to survive in the cold, as well as in warmer

Show More

Related Documents: Loggerhead Turtle Research Paper

Research Paper On Loggerhead Turtles