Leatherback turtle

Habitat

Leatherback sea turtles can be found primarily in the open ocean. Scientists tracked a leatherback turtle that swam from Jen Womom beach of Tambrauw Regency in Southwest Papua, Indonesia to the US in a 20,000 km (12,000 mi) foraging journey over a period of 647 days. Leatherbacks follow their jellyfish prey throughout the day, resulting in turtles "preferring" deeper water in the daytime, and shallower water at night (when the jellyfish rise up the water column). This hunting strategy often places turtles in very frigid waters. One individual was found actively hunting in waters where temperatures were as low as 0.4 °C (32.7 °F). Following each foraging dive, the leatherback would return to warmer (17.5 °C (63.5 °F)) surface waters to regain body heat before continuing to dive into near-freezing waters. Leatherback turtles are known to pursue prey deeper than 1000 m—beyond the physiological limits of all other diving tetrapods except for beaked whales and sperm whales.