Turtles are incredible creatures that inhabit both terrestrial spaces and freshwater systems as well as the seas and oceans worldwide. While there are many turtle species worldwide, they all share similar reproductive habits, particularly in mating and nesting—two of the most critical events in a reptile’s life history. Most turtles will wait until warm weather to nest, although some river-dwelling species in tropical or subtropical regions might nest between January and March. Most turtle species, however, nest between May and September, while certain sea turtles nest as late as late October or later in equatorial regions. The nesting time mostly depends on species-specific biology, latitude, photoperiod, and ambient environmental temperatures.
To learn more about the turtles’ nesting habits, read the article below.
Turtle Reproduction Cycle
Figuring out when your pet turtle might be ready to lay eggs can be a real mystery. Several behavioral signs can tell you your turtle is ready to lay eggs. She may search for a particular spot to nest, show increased restlessness, reduced appetite, repeated digging behaviors, or attempts to escape the enclosure, so you need to monitor her behavior closely. While some things are out of control in the wild, breeding turtles in captivity allows for environmental management, monitoring, and early veterinary intervention.
It is very important to note that female reptiles in captivity can lay eggs even without a male present. These eggs will not hatch. An inability to lay eggs properly can lead to major health issues for the female turtle, including dystocia (egg binding), cloacal prolapse, infection, or metabolic compromise.
If you notice your female turtle struggling to lay eggs, acting strange for unexplained reasons, displaying lethargy, buoyancy abnormalities, hind-limb weakness, or persistent straining, or struggling to swim, consult your veterinarian promptly.
When Do Turtles Lay Eggs?
While some turtle species can lay eggs throughout the year, others choose a particular time of year and time of day. Most turtles will lay their eggs once annually, with some species producing multiple clutches within a single nesting season, while very few species will lay eggs every other year. They emerge primarily during the night to avoid predators and being affected by the scorching heat. However, some species emerge to lay eggs during the day only because they do it in mass nesting groups of hundreds, called an arribada. 1</sup?
Turtles mostly choose the warmest time of year to lay eggs since the incubation temperature range critical for embryonic development and sex determination is typically between approximately 80°F and 90°F (26.7 – 32 °C), depending on the species. This can also vary depending on the location, so their nesting can occur between May and September. Sea turtles can even lay eggs in late October, or year-round in consistently warm climates, given that the conditions are still ideal. 2
Turtles depend on the warm weather for the eggs to hatch, to ensure the eggs’ proper development, and the embryos’ health. The nesting material also needs the right amount of moisture and airflow so the eggs don’t dry out, suffocate, or develop problems as the babies grow.
Certain river-dwelling turtles may travel along the river in search of a perfect nesting site. If these turtles, such as the River Terrapins, mate during November and December, they will nest between January and March.
How Many Eggs Can Turtles Lay?
As mentioned above, most turtle species lay eggs once a year, while a few exceptions lay multiple clutches within a season or less frequently, depending on species and body condition. This factor is essential for determining the size of a clutch, as a single sea turtle clutch can contain between approximately 80 and 180 eggs, depending on the species. This number is impressive, considering that some sea turtle species can have between two and ten clutches during the nesting season. In contrast, river-dwelling turtles typically lay about 10–40 eggs each season, depending on species size and reproductive strategy. On the lower end of the spectrum, some species only lay a clutch of about 1-10 eggs.
How Do Turtle Eggs Hatch?
All turtles, no matter their habitat, develop within flexible, leathery eggshells, which are not calcified like bird eggs, to allow for gas exchange and moisture absorption during incubation. This is why all hatchlings have a developed caruncle, a keratinous bump on their snouts. They use this bump to push against the inner surface of the egg to create an opening, after which the hatchlings may rest for hours to days before emerging fully. The hatchlings then begin digging upwards, usually in a group effort. If the hatchlings are aquatic turtles, they will proceed to move toward the water, while terrestrial species will search for shelter under leaf litter or dense vegetation.
Final Thoughts
Once you learn about the complex and biologically driven rituals of turtles, you may look at them from an entirely new perspective. They spend most of their year allocating energy toward growth, survival, and eventual reproduction, carefully selecting ideal places to nest, searching for the perfect conditions for their hatchlings to survive. They mostly lay eggs during warm weather, which can, depending on their location, be between May and late September, and sometimes late October or beyond in tropical regions.
Featured Image By: SunsetPaper, Shutterstock
Turtle Reproduction Cycle
