NOV20

Classroom lesson · Wildlife · 🇬🇩 Grenada

Leatherback Turtle

The largest turtle in the world nests on Grenada's beaches

A large leatherback turtle returning to the sea after nesting on a dark Caribbean beach

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The leatherback turtle is the biggest turtle in the world — it can grow as long as two metres and weigh as much as 900 kilograms. Instead of a hard shell like most turtles, it has a tough, rubbery skin covering its back, which is where its name comes from. Every year, female leatherbacks travel thousands of kilometres across the ocean to nest on the beaches of Grenada.

Tell me more

Leatherbacks are ocean wanderers. They spend almost their entire lives at sea, diving deep to catch jellyfish — their favourite food. Their throats are lined with hundreds of backward-pointing spines that stop slippery jellyfish from escaping once caught. A leatherback can dive to depths of over 1,000 metres, deeper than almost any other reptile on Earth.

Female leatherbacks return to the same beach where they hatched to lay their own eggs. Scientists believe they use the Earth's magnetic field like an invisible map, navigating across entire ocean basins to find the right spot. On Grenada's beaches, they crawl ashore at night, dig a deep hole with their back flippers, lay around 80 eggs, cover them carefully and slide back into the sea.

The eggs incubate in the warm sand for about two months. When the baby turtles hatch, they dig up through the sand together and race towards the light of the sea. Volunteer groups in Grenada watch over nesting beaches to keep the eggs and hatchlings safe. It is a precious natural event that Grenadians celebrate and protect with great care.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Leatherback turtles use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate across entire oceans. What other tools do animals use to find their way, and what tools do humans use?
  2. 02The same beaches are used for swimming by day and turtle nesting by night. How can people and animals share the same spaces safely?
  3. 03If you could follow a leatherback turtle on its ocean journey, what do you think you would see along the way?
Try this

Classroom activity

Map the leatherback turtle's journey. On a world map, draw Grenada and mark it with a turtle symbol. Then draw arrows showing the routes leatherbacks might travel across the Atlantic Ocean. Use a scale bar to estimate how far they swim. Compare the distance to a journey you know, such as from your home to a favourite place.

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