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The Galapagos Islands’ sea turtle mating season is a fascinating event to witness. To preserve this unusual and fascinating species, sea turtles specifically start hunting for their spouse at this time of year. Follow this blog to learn about the Galapagos Sea Turtles’ mating season.
Sea Turtle Mating Season in Galapagos: Time & Temperature
The only species of sea turtle known to nest in the Galapagos is the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), which is the kind that calls the islands home. This specific species usually reaches maturity between the ages of 20 and 50 (they live to an average of 80 years old) when its carapace measures approximately 69 to 79 cm (27-31 in).
The Galapagos sea turtle mating season often starts a few weeks before the island’s nesting and hatching season, which follows the arrival of warmer weather on land and in the water. The photoperiod, or length of the day, likewise lengthens during the hot season. Because the sex of the eggs depends on the outside temperature, it is thought that these act as cues for sea turtles to start copulating. The best temperature to begin their nesting season is when incubation temperatures are approximately 29° C (84 °F).
These cues cause sea turtles to return to the beaches where they first hatched during the mating season in the Galapagos, with males doing so because they are keenly aware that they will find females here, and females know it’s a perfect place to nest.
Sea Turtle Mating Season in Galapagos: A Tenacious Tale
Sea turtles are generally solitary and independent animals until the Galapagos breeding season. At this time of year, males only approach females and initiate their brief courtship gambit, which consists of soft bites around the back of the female’s neck and rear flippers or a nuzzle on her head. If the female stays, the male mounts her and clings to her back shell, holding on with his enormous, exclusively male claws on the front of his flippers to secure himself.
Once attached, the male folds his tail/cloaca, from which his lengthy penis extends to inseminate the female’s cloaca, sometimes extending up to half the length of his shell.
The female holds on tight from now on, sometimes for as long as twenty-four hours. He can keep other men from attempting to mate with her by remaining bonded. The attached male will frequently try to be “tortured” into releasing his grip by these other males biting at his tail and flippers.
Following the conclusion of the insemination procedure, the pair split apart, swimming apart and mating with other individuals of the opposite sex. The female will only stop mating when her sperm reserves are sufficient to fertilize her eggs for the mating season.
As the eggs are ultimately the product of multiple dads who have successfully inseminated the female, this generates and preserves a vast range of genetic variability in the population of sea turtles throughout the Galapagos. The visible fact that female sea turtles get scars all over their shells is a harsh reminder of these intense times during the Galapagos sea turtle mating season.
During the Santa Cruz II Galapagos trip, our visitors can see sea turtles across the archipelago! Together with Isabela island and Fernandina Islands, one of the largest and most popular locations for these fantastic animals, on our Western Islands Galapagos cruise.
