Species: Caretta caretta
Bundjalung name: Unknown
Status (IUCN):  Vulnerable

Characteristics

• Length/size: Loggerhead sea turtles get their names from their wide skulls. Loggerheads are the third largest species of turtle in the world. Adult loggerheads have a carapace approximately 1m in length. Hatchlings have a carapace that is approximately 4-4.8cm in length.

• Colour: Adult loggerhead turtles have a red-brown to brown carapace, with a yellow plastron. Hatchlings are dark brown to grey in colouration, with a dark coloured plastron.

• Breeding/reproduction: Loggerhead turtles reach sexual maturity between 17-33 years of age. Females will lay on average 110 eggs per clutch but can lay up to 125 eggs, with usually 2-3 clutches laid per year. Loggerhead turtles have the widest nesting distribution of any sea turtles, spanning from New Caledonia to the Mediterranean Sea.

• Diet: Loggerhead turtles are exclusively carnivorous and highly opportunistic in their feeding. They feed mostly on invertebrates but their diets can also include things like jellyfish, barnacles, snails, anemones, sea cucumbers, marine worms and fish. They do however prefer to eat mollusks and crustaceans and have both special heavy muscles in their jaws and an extremely thick parrot-like beak, for easily crushing the exoskeletons of their prey.

Habitat: Loggerhead hatchlings and juveniles are pelagic, meaning they live in the open ocean, far from any coastline. Hatchlings travel in the east australian current to New Zealand, where they travel across the pacific and spend their first 10-15 years off the coast of South America. It is not until they are sub-adults that they return to Australia. These first 10-15 years are considered ‘the lost years’ because little is known about their habits during this time period. Adults and subadults are typically found around coral reefs, bays and estuaries in tropical and warm temperate waters.

Threats:  Loggerhead turtle dietary choices make them more prone to becoming entangled in crab or lobster pots or being caught as bycatch on long lines and in trawl nets. Often these incidents prove fatal to the turtle. Loggerhead turtles are also threatened by marine pollution, vessel strikes and climate change.