Turtles
Olive Ridley Turtle
Lepidochelys olivacea · Marine reptile, family Cheloniidae
The olive ridley is the ocean's commonest sea turtle and one of its least seen by divers: a modest, round-shelled animal in gray-green that spends its life offshore rather than posing on reefs. Its fame rests on one of nature's numeric marvels: the arribadas of Ostional and Nancite in Costa Rica and Odisha in India, when a season's females arrive in coordinated waves and beaches vanish under nesting turtles. Underwater encounters are surface crossings: a small head raised mid-ocean, a pair drifting in the blue off Baja or the Revillagigedos. Sheer abundance hides real vulnerability; a species that concentrates itself so densely can be hurt at scale just as fast.
Dónde y cuándo ver uno
"Residente" significa que la mayoría de las inmersiones en ese destino tienen encuentros con ellos; "estacional" significa que su presencia es fiable en los meses indicados; cualquier otra cosa es un extra, no algo con lo que contar.
| Destino | Fiabilidad | Meses | Notas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica Pacific CoastCosta Rica | Seasonal: reliable in season | Aug–Nov | |
| Socorro & the RevillagigedosMexico | Occasional | Todo el año | |
| Sea of Cortez & Cabo PulmoMexico | Occasional | Todo el año |
El mejor mes, de un vistazo
Comprendiéndolos
Hábitat: Open tropical ocean and soft-bottom coastal shelves; not a reef turtle: most of its life passes offshore
Rango: Pantropical, with enormous eastern Pacific and Indian Ocean populations; mass-nesting beaches in Costa Rica, Mexico, and India
Comportamiento: Famous for the arribada: synchronized mass nesting in which tens of thousands of females storm a single beach over a few nights, a strategy that swamps predators. At sea it drifts and forages alone, often logging motionless at the surface far from land.
Dieta: Crustaceans, jellyfish, tunicates, and small invertebrates taken in open water and on soft bottoms
Tamaño: normalmente alrededor de 0.65 m; documentado hasta 0.75 m (carapace length; the smallest sea turtle alongside its Kemp's ridley sister species).
Cómo comportarse cerca de uno
Arribada beaches are strictly managed: enter only with licensed guides under national park rules. At sea, give floating turtles space; they may be resting, mating, or accompanied by boats' propellers too often already.
Conservación
Vulnerable; regulated egg harvest at Ostional coexists with strict protection elsewhere, while trawl bycatch (answered by turtle excluder devices) and coastal development press the big rookeries.
Puntos conocidos por avistamientos
Los puntos destacados fueron registrados para esta especie por nuestros editores; los números son registros de ocurrencia de GBIF anotados en un radio de unos 5 km de un punto desde 1990.
Ver
Desde los canales oficiales
Wildlife of Monterey | New film in our auditorium
Live Aviary Cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium
Live Aviary Cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium
Los vídeos son enlaces insertados a los canales de sus propios creadores. No alojamos nada y acreditamos todo.