For this activity, sit quietly near a turtle nest. If you do not live near a turtle nesting beach, you
can build your own “pretend” turtle nest by piling up some sand and making tracks to the sea.

Look carefully at the turtle nest and imagine that it contains turtles eggs (if you are using a
real nest for this activity, do NOT dig up the eggs as you will kill any developing hatchlings).
Imagine, the different stages of a turtle’s life, from egg to hatchling to juvenile to nesting adult.

Take time to discuss the following questions with your teacher:

1) What do the turtle tracks look like? What kind of turtle might have made this nest?
What does a nest look like?

2) Is this nest at risk from any threats?

3) How do we know if the eggs inside this nest will produce male or female hatchlings?

4) How do the hatchlings get out of the nest? What time do they usually emerge? How
do they know where to go?

5) What happens to the hatchlings once they reach the sea? What will they eat? What
must they be watchful for?

6) Imagine one of these hatchlings is a female and grows up to be an adult. How far will
she swim in two or three year’s time? Where do you think she might go?

7) What time might you expect to see this same female turtle come back to the very
beach where you are sitting right now?