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.
Dove e quando avvistarne uno
"Residente" significa che la maggior parte delle immersioni in quella destinazione li incontra; "stagionale" significa che sono presenti in modo affidabile nei mesi indicati; qualsiasi altra cosa è un bonus, non un piano.
| Destinazione | Affidabilità | Mesi | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica Pacific CoastCosta Rica | Seasonal: reliable in season | Aug–Nov | |
| Socorro & the RevillagigedosMexico | Occasional | Tutto l'anno | |
| Sea of Cortez & Cabo PulmoMexico | Occasional | Tutto l'anno |
Il mese migliore, a colpo d'occhio
Capirle
Habitat: Open tropical ocean and soft-bottom coastal shelves; not a reef turtle: most of its life passes offshore
Distribuzione: Pantropical, with enormous eastern Pacific and Indian Ocean populations; mass-nesting beaches in Costa Rica, Mexico, and India
Comportamento: 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
Dimensioni: tipicamente intorno a 0.65 m; documentato fino a 0.75 m (carapace length; the smallest sea turtle alongside its Kemp's ridley sister species).
Come comportarsi in sua presenza
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.
Conservazione
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.
Siti mappati noti per avvistamenti
I siti evidenziati sono stati schedati per questa specie dai nostri redattori; i numeri sono record di occorrenza GBIF registrati entro circa 5 km dal sito a partire dal 1990.
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