Eretmochelys imbricata
4 Hawksbill Turtle at Merimbula, NSW
Identify this sighting
| Eretmochelys imbricata | PatrickCampbell | 12 Jul 2018 | |
| Eretmochelys imbricata | PatrickCampbell | 2 Jul 2018 | |
| Eretmochelys imbricata | rickcarey | 20 Jan 2018 |
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Significant sighting
User's notes
rare and endangered Hawksbill Turtle in his hiding hole
3 comments
12 Jul 2018
I've had a good look at the books and enlarged the photo and I'm confident that this is a Hawksbill Turtle. Reasons being, the beak projects forward in Hawksbills, whereas it doesn't in Greens; there apprears to be an indication of two pairs of prefrontals further suggesting Hawksbill, whereas Greens only have one pair of prefrontal scales; there are only five, relatively large temporal scales on this specimen, as opposed to the more numerous, smaller temporal scales present on Greens.
18 Jul 2018
The temporal scales are located on the side of the head between the parietal scales and the supralabials, and behind the postocular scales. However I use the term more loosely in this case and include all the scales behind the eye (including the postoculars) as there's so few scales in the temporal region in this species. Basically, there's relatively fewer scales in the temporal region in Hawksbills than in Greens.
The barnacles tend to gather in the sutures between the scales and between the scutes, making them more visible, particularly on the marginal scutes in this photo.
The barnacles tend to gather in the sutures between the scales and between the scutes, making them more visible, particularly on the marginal scutes in this photo.
Location information
- Places Merimbula, NSW
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- rickcarey Recorded by
Collections
- Significant Featured Reptiles and Frogs Turtles rickcarey South Coast NatureMapr Eretmochelys imbricata
Species information
- Eretmochelys imbricata Scientific name
- Hawksbill Turtle Common name
- Sensitive
- Very rare / threatened
- Non-invasive or negligible
- External link More information
Record quality
Quality score
4 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Description
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Additional attributes