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Chenlonia mydas, named as Green Turtle, as
Reptilia, Testudinata, and mydas in biological
classification, is one of large turtles with 90 to 120 cm
and with 100 kilograms in weight as an adult, and its name
comes from leaf green in its fats due to its major food from
seaweed. The Turtle used to be called as black or stone
turtle, looking like a big round stone from far away. As
other sea turtles, Green Turtle stays his whole life in sea
except laying eggs on seashore. They scatter in tropical
and sub-tropical seas, and lay eggs in beaches over 25¢J
in temperature. Loyal to their habitats, no matter how far
they swim away, green titles shall come back for laying eggs
and seeking food, however, if habitats are destroyed, they
will re-find a new one. According to some researches, Green
Turtle in wild grow up for 20 to 50 years, and there are
almost 200,000 green titles in the world, concentrating in
some areas. Green Turtles of mature may not match and lay
eggs every year, instead, it is 2 to 5 years according to
researches. Sensitive of female turtle, laying eggs may be
interrupted by interference (such as lights and moving
objects, even sand crab), therefore, in high tide turtles
will observes for a while, land when making sure of no
enemies, dig a boy pit with front flappers and a egg chamber
with rear flappers during 1 to 2 hours, and lay 100 to 150
leather-cover eggs of tennis ball size. Then, turtles may
spend another 1 to 2 hours to cover eggs with sands, and
climb back to sea with left track on beach. Green Turtles
of WangAn Island usually match in April and May, and lay
eggs from May to October. The number of Green Turtles is
sharply declining due to human catching and habitats
shrinking, and they will disappear from the world if sea and
beach they lay eggs keep destructed. PengHu County
Government announced the habitats and laying egg zones in
WangAn as the protection zone under approval of Council of
Agriculture, Executive Yuan on Jan. 17th, Year 84th of ROC
(1995), with total area of 23.3283 ha, most situated on west
and south coasts. During May 1st to Oct. 31st every year in
6 protection zones, there are nigh controls on beaches.
According to Article 41 and 42 of Wildlife Protection Code,
Green Turtle is the kind of preservative wild animal, and
hunting, killing, interference, abuse, catching eggs and
small turtles, and interruption for egg laying may be fined
by less than 1 million NT dollars and sentenced in prison
for less than five years. |