Hawksbill Turtle - A Critically Endangered Species

Hawksbill....what does this remind you of? The beak of a hawk right? Yes this turtle has a mouth very similar to a Hawk's bill and hence the name. You can see the picture below for yourself. 

Mouth of a Hawksbill Turtle
Photo by Tom Doeppner

These hawksbill turtles are one of the most critically endangered species in this world. They are found in the tropical oceans. 

The beautiful Hawksbill turtle

A Hawksbill Sea turtle foraging for food in the coral reefs of the British Virgin Islands
Author: Colin Johnson

They are hunted for their beautiful shells. They are found around the coral reefs and their main food is the sea sponges. They also feed on other cnidarians and crustaceans. 

Range of the Hawksbill Turtle

Other threats are fisheries by-catch while in some parts of the world the flesh and eggs of these turtles are eaten as delicacies.

Camping around their nesting sites, and using the nesting beaches for commercial purposes have also led to this species becoming critically endangered.

Nesting location of Hawksbill sea Turtle
Red dot = major nesting locations
Yellow dot=minor nesting locations

Hawksbill nesting
Source: panda.org

The hawksbill turtles come to the nesting beaches to lay their eggs and the nesting process takes between 1 to 1.5 hours. There are many birds and other predators that feed on their eggs. The baby turtles hatch after almost 2 months and these have dangerous predators too. 

Did you know? The gender of the hatchling is determined by the incubation temperature, hence the reason why climate change has serious effects on these turtle populations too!

Baby turtles

Source: savingparadise.wildlifedirect.org

The lifecycle of a hawksbill turtle is through various stages like pelagic, benthic and reproductive phase. 

Please follow the link below to read in more detail about the hawksbill turtle, its habitat and food, its characteristics, the reproduction process, the reasons for endangerment, the conservation efforts, facts etc.

Hawksbill Turtle - A Critically Endangered Species

The hawksbill turtle plays an important role in the ecosystem and they are also a good source of income through ecotourism. Pollution and toxic spills are also a huge threat for these species and all other marine species. 

Ornaments and other products are manufactured using the hawksbill turtle parts and we need to stand together to stop illegal trade of hawksbill products and hawksbill shells. 

An armband made out of hawksbill turtle's shell

WWF, TRAFFIC, CITES and many other conservation organisations are working along with the governments of different countries to conserve and protect the hawksbill turtles.

You can read about all these in more detail, by following the link below.

Hawksbill Turtle - A Critically Endangered Species

We can all stand together to help save our planet by helping to protect and conserve the species in this world. 

You can help by adopting a turtle, or by donating to WWF, by sending a turtle to rehab, by NOT buying turtle products or at the least by spreading the word about the importance of these turtles and why we need to protect them.

I hope you all enjoyed reading about these beautiful species. Let us all stand together to help save and protect our planet, because "Extinction is Forever", so we need to help to stop that from happening.

Hope you've all had a good week so far. I wish you all peace and love and have a good rest of the week.

Blessings to you all.

Livingsta :-)

Adult hawksbill turtle
Author: Becky A. Dayhuff
Environmental Educator

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