Featured Fauna: Green Turtle

Home

Scientific Name:

Chelonia mydas

Common Name:

Green Turtle

pawikan (in most Filipino dialects); bildog (Isabela); tabugon (Mindoro); talisayon, magdarait (Bicol); daranawan, pawikan (Samar); anuno, katuan (Palawan); pudno (Tausug, Samal); payukan (Mapun); tortuga (Zamboanga); tuod (Camiguin, Siargao)

Description:

This turtle is brown all over, grows to about 125 centimeters and often weighs some 230 kilograms. It is the only sea turtle that lives on plants. The fat inside this turtle’s body is green from vegetation it eats, hence the name.

Aerial Identification
Carapace	Nearly oval, somewhat tapering behind
Head	Small and rounded
Color	Variable color, dorsal scutes may be radially streaked, plain or spotted

At Close Identification
A. Prefrontal scutes	One pair
B. Shell
b.1 Carapace scutes	Do not overlap
b.2 Lateral scutes	Four pairs
b.3 Carapace length (curved)	Up to 125 cm.

Weight	Up to 230 kg

Color
a. Carapace	Light tan, green to almost black

b. Plastron	Yellow
Hatchling Color
a. Carapace	Grey
b. Plastron	White

Infra-marginal pores	Absent

Distribution:

Mostly widely distributed species in the country with Turtle Island, Tawi-tawi as a major nesting ground (>1,000 nestings recorded annually). All sub-tropical seas.

Diet:

Their serrated upper jaw effectively scrapes filamentous algae off hard bottoms, and shears leafy seaweeds and seagrasses. Green turtles have an active gut flora to assist them in breaking down otherwise undigestible vegetative matter.

Conservation Status:

Appendix I in CITES; Endangered in IUCN

Endangered in the Philippine List of Threatened Wildlife Species (DENR DAO 2004-15)

» Previous Page