The spectre of climate change has come to haunt one of the ocean’s most ubiquitous — yet vulnerable — turtles: the strong-jawed loggerhead, named after its exceptionally large head. The authors also observed that there were fewer eggs in each nest, and that the turtles are becoming smaller in size. And these turtles being “capital breeders”, draw from energy stored from foraging at sea, over years, in order to reproduce. Changes in nest temperatures can affect the sex ratio of sea turtles: “like many other reptiles, in turtles, the sex of the hatchling is determined by the nest temperature and not genetically. And loggerhead turtles like many other wild fauna, are adapting, and this reptile does so by breeding earlier in the year as temperatures rise.

Source: The Hindu February 17, 2026 01:32 UTC