engleski

Diet composition of a green turtle, Chelonia mydas, from the Adriatic Sea

The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) is a foraging specialist, with strong tendency towards herbivory of neritic-stage individuals. Due to lack of data on the feeding ecology of this species in the Mediterranean, we analysed diet composition of one juvenile green turtle with the curved carapace length of 40.0 cm, found dead in the eastern Adriatic Sea (Croatia) in December 2001. The turtle has dominantly feed upon benthic polychaetes Chaetopterus variopedatus (69.8%), while seagrass (Cymodocea nodosa) and algae accounted for 11.1% of the total wet mass. Species composition and their vertical distribution showed that the turtle was in the post-pelagic stage and has foraged in the shallow coastal waters. We discuss our results in the light of recent recoveries of C. mydas juveniles in Albania and Greece, and suggest the existence of an Ionian-Adriatic developmental pathway of green turtles from reproductive habitats in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

sea turtles ; Chelonia mydas ; diet ; development ; Adriatic Sea ; Mediterranean

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