Hawksbill Turtle

Hawksbill turtle plucking sponges from the reef

The characteristic jaws of this sea turtle have given rise to its name; narrow and tapered to a sharp point like a hawk, they have evolved a beak fit for tearing up sponges from cracks and crevices in and around the coral reefs they live in. Although when growing up, the Hawksbill juveniles are much more omnivorous eaters, their diets slowly become more and more specialised with age as they begin to consume greater quantities of sponges. The gradual introduction to the adult diet is thought to be because it takes the juveniles some time to form immunity to the cocktail of poisonous chemicals found in the different sponges they eat. Residents of local fishing villages have known for some time that the meat of the Hawksbill is poisonous and have steered clear of it as a food source, but it wasn’t until recently that local knowledge was linked to science when it was discovered that as much as 95% of the Hawksbill diet consists of sponges and their poisons.

Despite being smaller in size than the Green Turtle with an adult carapace length of approximately 80cm and weighing up to only 75kg, the Hawksbill still shares many behavioural traits to those of the Green Turtle. After an oceanic stage as hatchlings, floating among algal drifts of Sargassum, juveniles are found to settle and often have favourite feeding grounds during the day and sleeping sites at night. The juveniles may stay on the same feeding grounds for up to 25 years until they mature, but on reaching adulthood the turtles will migrate home, sometimes more than 1000 miles to their natal beaches to mate and lay nests (the reason why turtles make this epic journey is still very much unknown, especially when there are perfectly good nesting sites just a few miles from their regular feeding grounds). When a female Hawksbill comes onto the land to nest it is normally quite a quick process taking only an hour to an hour and a half. Hauling herself up the beach to the trees, she leaves distinct tracks in the ground as they are the only sea turtle to use an alternating flipper motion to move across the sand. After digging her nest she will lay on average 130 eggs in a single clutch and with some nests recorded having 150 eggs, this is more than any other species of sea turtle.

The Hawksbill Turtle is often considered to be the most beautiful turtle in the world, and unfortunately for the species, its beauty has made it desirable to man. Because of its unique and colourful shell with overlapping scutes and rays of yellow, white, red, black, brown and gold, the shell has been sought after for thousands of years in order to make tortoiseshell jewellery. Among Egyptians, Romans, Europeans, Chinese and Arabs, the most notable trade in tortoiseshell has come from the Japanese bekko antiques, that use tortoiseshell as a coloured inlay in combs, fans, ornaments and furniture. Centuries of international trade of such antiques has devastated hawksbill populations around the world and in Indonesia alone there were over 700,000 juvenile and adult stuffed curios and tortoiseshells exported between 1970 and 1986. In Malaysia eggs are still being poached from the main Hawksbill nesting sites in Melaka and in the last 50 years there has been a 90% decline in Hawksbill populations in Malaysian waters. Now it is estimated that only around 60-70,000 nesting females remain in waters worldwide and that their numbers are still in decline. Although a huge turning point in the survival of the Hawksbill Turtle was reached through an international ban in the tortoiseshell trade, there is still much to be done for the revival of this species.