Olive ridley sea turtle

Lepidochelys olivacea · The olive ridley is a small sea turtle with an olive-green, heart-shaped shell that lives in warm and tropical waters, mainly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Also called Pacific ridley sea turtle, Olive ridley, Olive ridley turtle, Pacific Ridley.

Olive ridley sea turtle
Photo: Drashokk, CC BY-SA 4.0
Olive ridley sea turtle
Photo: USFWS Pacific Southwest Region, Public domain
Olive ridley sea turtle
Photo: Titiréunion, CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassReptilia
OrderTestudines
FamilyCheloniidae
GenusLepidochelys
SpeciesLepidochelys olivacea

Where it lives

Warm and tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and warm parts of the Atlantic.

Fun facts

  • Thousands of female olive ridleys gather on the same beach at the same time to lay eggs, in a mass nesting event called an arribada.
  • In 1991, over 600,000 olive ridleys nested along the coast of Odisha, India, in just one week.
  • Mother olive ridleys return to the beach where they hatched, then dig a nest about 1.5 feet deep using only their hind flippers.
  • Jaguars are the only cats with a bite strong enough to get through a sea turtle's shell, and they sometimes attack nesting olive ridleys on beaches.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).