Marvels of Mother Nature At The Kenya Coast: How Do Turtles Breath?

A sea turtle at the Kenya coast. The leatherback is the largest species in Kenya. Photo courtesy of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)

If you are a sea turtle lover, then the small fishing town of Watamu at the north coast of Kenya would be a great place for you to watch these ancient creatures that have been around for more than a million years – even outliving dinosaurs.

The best time to get there would be between the months of April and August when the nesting season is at its peak. During this period the females come out to the sandy beaches to lay their nests – usually in the same beaches where they themselves were hatched. They can swim thousands of miles, guided by the earth’s magnetic field, to build their new nests in the same locations of their origin.

Watamu has been designated as one of Kenya’s most important marine turtle nesting areas and is internationally recognised as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is from here that you can behold one of nature’s great moment as hundreds of hatchlings emerge from the sands to breathe Mother Nature’s precious life-supporting oxygen for the first time in their lives. This can best be experienced at night when the hatchlings come to the surface to avoid (or minimise) predation and the heat from the sun.

Usually the female turtle swims to the seashore, digs a nest which is about a metre deep, lays up to 100 eggs which she buries in the sand and goes back to the sea – work done! The eggs take between 50 to 70 days to hatch. Sadly, only 1 in 1,000 hatchlings will survive to adulthood, making the turtles an endangered species.

Besides their unique ‘homing device’ turtles have some rather unique (even strange) traits. Sea turtles never nurse their young ones. Their connection to their young ones ends with the laying of eggs at the beach. They excrete excess salt after drinking the salty sea water through a gland by their eyes which makes them appear as if they are crying.

Some species are known to swim to levels deeper than whales. The largest of them, the leatherback, is known to reach depths of 1,200m.

When the hatchlings emerge from their nests, they seek out the brightest light in the horizon to guide them to the sea. This usually would be the moon but if a human with a torch happens to be around the beach at the time the hatchlings emerge, then this would thoroughly confuse them since they would tend to follow the light from the torch.

Turtles have the ability to stay for long hours underwater before they come to the surface for air. The highest recorded time is 33 hours. Because of this extraordinary anaerobic capacity they can survive longer undersea unlike most mammals.

But the most fascinating and strange feature about these aquatic animals is their ability to pick up oxygen even when submerged and breathe for hours without needing to come to the surface through their anus! Many turtle species have a pair of sacs (bursae) opening off the cloaca (combined digestive and urogenital chamber). Up to 68% of the turtle’s oxygen uptake is accomplished through these sacs. Other animals that have this rare gift include the dragonfly nymphs and sea cucumbers.

386 total views, 3 views today