Turtle Sexing

Turtle Sexing: Can you tell if a sea turtle is a boy or a girl? If they have a big, fat tail, you are looking at a boy. If there is almost no tail present, you have a girl.
See if you can tell turtle sex in this video.
Turtle eggs pick their sex based on the temperature of the nest. The warmer the sand, you will get more girls. Cooler sand will get more boys-it’s all about the hot girls and cool dudes when the topic is turtles.
When the sand is very hot, you can get all female nests. With increased temperature changes on beaches, many nest have been increasingly all female. The problem with this is that there are very few males to breed with. And, resident males are often the father, grandfather, and great grandfather of all the turtles in the area. That’s not good for genetics and makes for awkward family reunions.
We finally saw our first MALE hawksbill yesterday, a critically endangered species. Not surprisingly, he was a big, old, turtle. We knew it would be very special if we could eventually run into a younger one, and we finally did! 🙌 🐢