- Group
- Turtle
- Habitat
- Reef
- Max size
- 90 cm
- Family
- Cheloniidae
The hawksbill sea turtle is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus Eretmochelys. The species has a global distribution that is largely limited to tropical and subtropical marine and estuary ecosystems.
Adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Behaviour
Feeds on sponges among coral, reaching into crevices with a narrow, pointed beak. The most likely turtle to meet on a reef dive, and it nests on Vanuatu beaches.
Easily confused with
Side by side, with what tells them apart.
The two turtles most often met on the reef. Hawksbill Turtle has a narrow, tapering head that ends in a sharp, hooked beak, and the plates at the back of its shell overlap, leaving a saw-toothed rear edge. Green Turtle has a short, rounded snout with no hook and a smooth-edged shell. Close up, count the scales between the eyes: one pair on the Green Turtle, two pairs on the Hawksbill.
See the Green Turtle →
Both can look orange-brown from above. Loggerhead Turtle has a huge, blunt head, five pairs of side plates and a smooth-edged, reddish-brown shell. Hawksbill Turtle has a narrow head ending in a pointed, hooked beak, four pairs of side plates, and an amber shell streaked with dark rays, its rear edge saw-toothed.
See the Loggerhead Turtle →