Sebastian's World – Tortugario – El Mundo De Sebastian

• When Baby Turtles are born, they have only their instincts and environment to depend on, and the odds are stacked against them as less than 1 out 1,000 baby turtles live to adulthood.
• Baby turtles are born with one tooth (called a carbuncle) which they use to break through their egg shell and they lose the tooth about an hour after they are born.
• A baby turtle is called a Hatching.
• A mother turtle lays between 100 to 200 eggs in a hole she has dug in the sand, covers the eggs with sand, then the mother turtle returns to the ocean.  Each groups of eggs laid is called a clutch.
• The incubation time for most sea turtles is 45 to 70 days.
• The sex of the baby sea turtle is highly dependent on the temperature of the nest.  Higher nest temperatures produce more females while lower temperatures produce more males.
• When a baby turtle reaches the surf, it dives into a wave and rides the undertow out to sea.  The baby turtle then does a “swim frenzy” of continuous swimming for the next 24 to 48 hours to get into deeper water where they are less vulnerable to predators.  
• After entering the ocean, baby turtles of many species are rarely seen for 1 to 3 years.  These are referred to the “lost years” and while researcher agree that the baby turtles live an oceanic existence before returning to coastal areas as they mature, little is known about these “lost years”.