Tony Hand, age 11, of Allentown, Pa., for his question:
HOW MANY EGGS DOES A FEMALE TURTLE LAY?
Turtles come in small, medium and large sizes, and the smaller types lay the smaller eggs. The larger types lay larger eggs, usually in huge batches. However, the largest of them all may lay only two each season and they are no bigger than ordinary chicken eggs.
Turtle eggs are white with soft tough shells, either round or slightly oval. Though these armor plated reptiles enjoy life in the water, all of them come on land and lay their eggs to hatch in the warm ground. The size and number of eggs that the female lays depend upon her species.
Some people refer to the land dwelling turtles as tortoises of which the most famous are the ancient pony size tortoises of the Galapagos Islands. Not too much is known about their secretive family life but the giant mother is thought to lay two eggs at a time. A much smaller turtle of Africa lays only one.
The turtles and tortoises of North America usually lay clutches of six to 12 eggs, depending on the species. Our chunky box turtle grows to be 12 inches long, and in early summer the female lays four or five roundish white eggs. Our pretty map turtle munches crabs and clams, and the female comes ashore to bury a clutch of 10 to 16 eggs.
The champion egg layers are the huge seagoing turtles of tropical seas. Though they must surface to breathe, they spend their lives out there in the global ocean. However, at least once a year the females lumber up onto their favorite beaches to bury their clutches of eggs in the warm sand.
The seagoing green turtle has green meat, no doubt because she feeds on sea grasses. She may be four feet long and weigh 400 pounds. She migrates with her kinfolk to mate around the nesting site, often near a tropical island. Her eggs are about the size and shape of ping pong balls and she buries a clutch of perhaps 100 in the sand.
The two foot hawksbill turtle is a great wanderer, though usually she comes ashore near a coral reef. Her eggs are about one and a half inches long and she lays perhaps 120. The huge leatherback turtle buries 60 to 100 two inch eggs on her favorite beach.
Turtles live rather secretive private lives and nobody seems certain which species is the champion egg layer. Perhaps it is the oceangoing loggerhead, who lays 120 to 140 eggs at a time.