Caouanne

The caouanne ( Caretta caretta ), or tortoise caouanne , is one of Tortue marinades.

Description

The caouanne, carnivore, nourish many Crustacé S and Mollusque S; it can weigh up to 160 kg but the average weight of an adult is of 105 kg. It can measure 1,25 m but on average the adults measure 1,10 Mr.
Dédiés with the stroke in open sea, the members of this large marine tortoise are used at the same time of engines (forefeet) and rudder (posterior legs).

Its carapace is in the shape of heart, flattened, its width is approximately 76% its length. Its head is rather long (approximately 28% length of the carapace) and very broad. One distinguishes 2 pairs from scales préfrontales on the head and a powerful horn nozzle. The carapace is recognized to have five pairs of side plates, a contiguous pair former to the plate précentrale and 3 pairs of plates inframarginales on the drill plate. Like the imbricated tortoise, it has two claws with each fin.

The backing is brown reddish with clear spots, its drill plate is yellow pale with diffuse orange spots. The new born one is black, like the other marine tortoises but its legs are clear.

As for the other marine tortoises, the females come to lay only all both or three seasons. The age of sexual maturity is estimated at more than 10 years. The majority of the caouannes which reach the adulthood live more than 30 years to see even more than 50.

Food

Its food mode is with carnivorous prevalence and feeds from Méduse S, Crustacé S, of Coquillage S and Poisson S.

Reproduction

the Mediterranean the laying is located April at September on the sand beaches end. The females accost to lay from 4 to 7 times per season and deposit from 64 to 198 eggs each time. Incubation lasts from 45 to 65 days. With the difference of the other marine tortoises, the coupling takes place usually during the migrations and not close to the places to laying.

How is the caouanne directed?

When they leave their terrestrial nest with the birth, the marine tortoises use various signals to be directed. Close to the coasts, where water is not very deep, this tortoise makes use of the orientation of the waves. In the darkness marine depths, it maintains the course while making use of the terrestrial magnetic field.

Chorology

This species, little Pelagic, attends usually moderate water and sometimes tropical and subtropical water. It is the only tortoise nidifiant out of the tropics. Gathered by several hundreds of individuals, they are able to traverse considerable distances since their site of life to join the places of laying. It is the only tortoise present in the most common Mediterranean and in the west of the Atlantic Ocean.

Places of laying

Several places of laying are known in the world and including in the Eastern Mediterranean for example in Turkey, Israel, with Cyprus, in the islands Ioniennes, in Tunisia, Libya and even still in Sicily. In the Atlantic of the West, they will lay Mexico until in Virginia.

Systematic

The origin of the word " Caret" is known little about, but it dates from the 16th century and could be a loan with the languages of the Caribbean via Spanish. It is the same for the " term; caouane". In New Caledonia, it is called “Famous person”

In kali' Na, language of the Amerindians living close to the great sites of layings in French Guiana and in Suriname, the name of the tortoise lute is Kawana. This name could be borrowed in French to indicate the caouanne.

Two pennies species are identified Caretta caretta caretta in the Atlantic Ocean and Caretta caretta gigas in the Pacific Ocean. The specimens of the Mediterranean have a completely specific genotype because of their relative insulation.

Phylogenetic classification

The relative evolutionary independent groups are described below by philogénie according to Hirayama, 1997,1998, Lapparent de Broin, 2000, and Parham, 2005:

The caouanne and the man

In France, it had already disappeared as a reproductive species since the beginning from the century. At sea, it is captured accidentally by the fishing nets. It is victim of pollution by ingestion of plastic bags which it confuses with jellyfishes. The future of this species in the Mediterranean depends mainly on the protection of the places of big shot remaining in the Eastern zone. It is primarily victim of tourism and industrial fishing.

To prevent the accidental captures by the trawlers, American set up a Dispositif of exclusion of the tortoises which makes it possible to limit them. In the Mediterranean, measurements limiting the accidental captures of these tortoises will have to be enacted.

Protection

It is protected in France by stopping it of July 17th, 1991. The females nidifiantes are protected with Cyprus and the surfaces of laying are protected with the island Zakynthos and the Kouf National Park in Libya.

An international protection campaign was launched by June Haimoff for the protection of its tortoises.

See too

External references

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