I am learning to: inform my audience through explanation writing.
Once upon a time there was an animal, who lived along with the dinosaurs and is still alive today. That animal is a sea turtle! They are species that date back to 65 million years ago, but sadly, six of the seven sea turtle species are currently endangered. The sea turtles life cycle has three main stages, the egg stage, the childhood stage, and the adulthood stage. Lets focus on where it all starts, the egg stage.
The mother sea turtle lays around 100 eggs in a hole she dug on the top of the beach. Out of all the eggs, 20% will never hatch, however, the 80% that do hatch make their way up and see the first glimpses of the outside world.
They quickly face the challenges of being a young sea turtle by being attacked by crabs, seagulls, racoons and other beach predators as they make their way to the ocean. After feeling the waves smash into them they enter a whole new world. They still have a lot of predators to face in the ocean such as dolphins, other fish and even birds as they come up to the water for air when the birds are looking for something to eat. The sea turtles usually would settle under a patch of floating seaweed, avoiding things that can eat them, and finding things they can eat themselves. These years are called the lost years, because scientists do not usually know where the little turtles are. The turtles that survive the childhood stage grow and grow into a big adult sea turtle.
Now those baby sea turtles smaller than the palm of your hand, grow up to 6 feet. These adult sea turtles are lucky, only 20% of sea turtles make it to the adulthood stage! They also do not have much predators now, only having to worry about the big fish, like tiger sharks and killer whales. The remaining adults head to the shore and mate, and the whole cycle repeats again.
Over the years humans have interfered with the ocean and overwhelmed the turtles. As just said only about 20% make it to adulthood and mate, and 6 of the 7 species are endangered. So in conclusion, the sea turtle life cycle from the egg stage, to the adulthood stage, is pretty challenging. Just like any life cycle. But the sea turtles have overcome MANY changes in the time they have been here. Maybe they will be able to overcome the change WE made? We will just have to figure out.
