The Green Tortoise

The Green Tortoise is also known as Caretta Caretta, and it lives at the bottom of the sea for their entire life. The Green tortoise is actually a turtle, because this is the difference between turtles and tortoises, but the name Green tortoise is also accepted. The lungs of those tortoises are well developed; ensuring perfect blood circulation, but the tortoise still has to come at the surface of the water to breathe.

Even if it does not have the possibility to withdraw the head under the carapace, the Green tortoise does not have natural enemies, this is owned to the big size, and to the resistant skin, that covers the entire body. In other words, this tortoise is not hunted by larger predators simply because it is not…tasty.

The Green turtles are predators, eating fish, crabs and other marine animals. Because of the strong jaws, they can easily chew shells. They are fast and they don’t have any enemy in the marine world, but when they reach the land, they become really vulnerable.



An adventure of a Green turtle on the land is not always nice. Although the males never leave the waters of the sea, the females have to find beaches with smooth sand to pay eggs. They will always look for the area with the smoothest sand on the beach, and once they find it, the female will dig a hole of 50 centimeters, where it will lay about 50-100 eggs with the size of a golf ball. Then, she covers the nest with sand, so it will be protected from potential predators.

The incubation period lasts for about two months, and then the baby turtles leave the nest and they look for the sea. It is the most vulnerable period from the life of a turtle, as the majority of babies die from different causes: natural predators, the influence of man on the beaches, or hatching during the day. From 50 eggs, only 2-3 babies reach maturity. It is believed that the tortoise will return to the beach where she was born to lay eggs.

The Caretta Caretta tortoises prefer the Mediterranean beaches. They are famous, but this only brought them troubles. The most important enemies of Green tortoises are the fishing nets, and the engines of tourist boats.

The muscles of the neck are well developed. The members and even the tale are also strong, as those must support a considerable weight. This tortoise has an increased mobility while swimming, but on the land, they are rather slow and exposed. Those turtles live for 30-40 years, and they can resist without food for a long time.



The Green turtle has not mechanism to protect against cold weather, and this is why it is hard to adapt it in colder areas. It is practically impossible to have it as a pet. This tortoise can handle heat and humidity with ease, but when it comes to cold weather, they are really vulnerable. You can think about having one as a pet only if you live in an area with a warm climate.