It’s thanks to the turtles on Koh Tao that this little island has such a great name in the world of conservation. The island is named turtle island because of the shape of it as you approach it from Koh Phangan, and also because of the vast amount of turtles that used to call Turtle Island their home. Unfortunately with the development of tourism the turtle population literally disappeared almost to the point of extinction until the conservationists of the island decided to put a stop to that and started conserving these incredible beautiful creatures and try and reintroduce the species back.
Some 10 years later we are now lucky enough here on Koh Tao to have healthy populations of both Hawksbill and Green Turtles.
Hawksbills are named for their narrow, pointed beak. They also have a distinctive pattern of overlapping scales on their shells that form a serrated-look on the edges. These colored and patterned shells make them highly-valuable and commonly sold as “tortoiseshell” in markets.
Hawksbills are found mainly throughout the world’s tropical oceans, predominantly in coral reefs. They feed mainly on sponges by using their narrow pointed beaks to extract them from crevices on the reef, but also eat sea anemones and jellyfish. Sea turtles are the living representatives of a group of reptiles that has existed on Earth and traveled our seas for the last 100 million years. They are a fundamental link in marine ecosystems and help maintain the health of coral reefs and sea grass beds.
Thanks to the work by local conservationists we work together to keep the local hawksbills happy, just like this little guy munching on a Jellyfish.
If you want to know more about turtle conservation and how you can be a pat of it then please get in touch or have a look at our conservation site and see what else you can do to get involved.
