Baby Turtles
Everyone thinks baby turtles are cute, and in most cases they are right. However, there is much more to baby turtles than being cute and it comes from their ability to survive on their own, against all odds.
The Nest
The lives of the baby turtles begins in the nest, where the mother has come ashore to a place that she was also born, where she digs a hole and lays the eggs. Once she has done this, she returns to the ocean, never to see the babies again. While the eggs are in the nest, the temperature at which they sit makes a big difference in how the babies are born. Higher temperatures tend to result in females, while lower temperatures result in male babies.
Being Born
When the babies do hatch, the turtle babies will squirm their way through the nest and emerge on the surface, where they immediately head to the water. At this point, they are very vulnerable because other species have learned to camp out at the beach during this time to get easy pickings of baby turtles. As a result, many die before ever reaching the water.
The Water
Once they do hit the water, they are not out of the woods and they are about to swim with the currents while they are baby turtles until the point they become adolescent and adult turtles. Sometimes, they will sit and hide themselves in the floating seaweed islands that sit in the middle of the ocean. At this point, they are still very vulnerable and again very few ever make it to adult hood.
The Chances
Turtles, not a single species, cares for its young. Once the baby is born, they are on their own, and while hundreds of eggs are laid on a beach, even thousands, only .01 percent of all the baby turtles will ever get to adulthood. This is due to predators, starvation and careless humans who may kill an entire nest by simply walking on it.
Conclusion
Baby turtles may be cute, but they face a life of hardship until they can reach adulthood. They will sometimes make it, but often they will not. However, a lucky few can make it to adulthood and live in excess of 100 years, which makes them one of the most versatile of all animal species.
While land turtles don’t use the sea, they do not care for their young and once the nest is laid, that is it for parenting.