Turtle Watching along Costa Rica`s Caribbean Coast and the Pacific Coast

 

Species

Green, Leatherback, Hawksbill, Loggerhead and Olive Ridley Sea Turtles

When and where ?

The nesting of Sea Turtles is one of natures amazing spectacles. Green Turtles nest along the beaches of Tortuguero National Park from July to October.

Leatherbacks nest frequently along the Caribbean coast and at Las Baulas National Park in Guanacaste from February to June. Hawksbill and Loggerheads, less common, nest along the Caribbean during the summer months.

The Olive Ridley nest in Ostional in Guanacaste, coming ashore in large numbers for several days each month from August to September.

How ?

Sea Turtles are most frequently seen when the females come ashore to deposit their eggs on beaches usually at night.

Only 1 of 5000 Sea Turtles are going to be adults, so it is really important that people do not disturb them while digging the holes in the sand to put their eggs in. No bright flash lights please!

Hawksbill

 

The Green Turtle

Tortuguero National Park

It is one of the most visited sites during the Turtle Hatching Season. Green Turtles nest along the beaches of Tortuguero National Park from July to October. Click HERE for more information

 

 

The Leatherback Turtle by Pulse Planet

They'll grow up to be the largest reptiles in the world. But tonight, on the Pacific beaches of Costa Rica, hundreds of Leatherback Sea Turtle babies, only four inches long, will hatch out of eggs the size of golfballs and run out to the sea. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.

On January nights, the Costa Rican beaches are swarming with Leatherback Sea Turtles. The huge adult females, who are six feet long and weigh one ton, are busy digging their nests and laying their eggs, while tiny hatchlings are digging their way out of their nests and racing to the shore. And, according to Steven Morreale of Cornell University,

"It's really an exciting time to be on the beach. It's just great."

Mr. Morreale has often witnessed the birth of a Leatherback Sea Turtle baby.

"It digs itself out of the nest, comes out, looks around, almost always night time, because if they come in the day, it's way too hot. They get a fix on where water is and then they all run down to the surf. So you can see as many as a hundred hatchling turtles all following each other, running down to the surfline. They're like little windup toys. Their little flippers are paddling away and they use that to propel themselves across the sand. And they head out into the surf, and actually that's the last time we see them for up to many, many years. And maybe, we'll never see them again. If they're males, they could go to the ocean and spend their entire life in the ocean. They could be as much as a hundred years, and we'd never know anything about that individual."

Turtle Species of Costa Rica

Loggerhead Caribbean and Atlantic ( Tortuguero )

Olive Ridley Turtle Pacific Coast Guanacaste

Leatherback Sea Turtle Pacific and Atlantic Coast

Hawksbill Turtle Pacific and Atlantic Coast

Green Turtle Atlantic Coast

Pacifi Green Turtle ( Pacific Coast )