Hawksbill sea turtle
Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766)
CRCritically Endangeredturtles and tortoises
The hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) is a reptile in the turtles and tortoises subgroup, belonging to the family Cheloniidae and the order Testudines. It is a large turtle with an adult body mass of 64.65 kg, with values from 62.3 to 67 kg reported, and its main food is benthic animal.
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Quick facts about the hawksbill sea turtle
It reaches sexual maturity at 20.7 years, lays 136 eggs per clutch with 3 clutches per year, and its eggs incubate for 60.6 days. The IUCN Red List classifies the hawksbill sea turtle as Critically Endangered, a threatened category.
- Weight
- 62.3 kg – 67 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- up to 1 msrc for Length
- Lifespan
- 20 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Carnivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 45 years
- Main food
- benthic animalsrc for Main food
- Habitat
- marinesrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 60.6 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 128 – 136.1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 17.2 years – 33 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 3src for Litters or clutches a year
- Reproduction
- Eggssrc for Reproduction
- Active
- Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Marinesrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Critically Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Photos of the hawksbill sea turtle
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the hawksbill sea turtle live?
Not recorded
What is the hawksbill sea turtle?
The hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus Eretmochelys. The species has a global distribution that is largely limited to tropical and subtropical marine and estuary ecosystems.
The appearance of the hawksbill is similar to that of other sea turtles. In general, it has a flattened body shape, a protective carapace, and flipper-like limbs, adapted for swimming in the open ocean. E. imbricata is easily distinguished from other sea turtles by its sharp, curving beak with prominent tomium, and the saw-like appearance of its shell margins. Hawksbill shells slightly change colors, depending on water temperature. While this turtle lives part of its life in the open ocean, it spends more time in shallow lagoons and coral reefs.
The World Conservation Union classifies E. imbricata as critically endangered, primarily as a result of human fishing practices. Hawksbill shells were the primary source of tortoiseshell material used for decorative purposes. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species regulates the international trade of hawksbill sea turtles and products derived from them.
From the Wikipedia article “Hawksbill sea turtle” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hawksbill_sea_turtle&oldid=1379048114), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the hawksbill sea turtle sound like?
Is the hawksbill sea turtle endangered?
The hawksbill sea turtle is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Critically Endangered species. What the categories mean.
How is the hawksbill sea turtle classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classReptilia
- orderTestudines
- familyCheloniidae
- genusEretmochelys
- SpeciesEretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms Caretta bissa, Caretta rostrata, Caretta squamosa, Chelone imbricata, Chelone imbricata, Chelonia imbricata, Chelonia pseudo-caretta, Chelonia pseudo-mydas, Chelonia radiata, Eretmochelys imbricata bissa, Eretmochelys imbricata squamata, Eretmochelys squamata, Eretmochelys squamosa, Onychochelys kraussi, Testudo imbricata, Testudo imbricata, Testudo nasicornis
Other names and names in other languages (81)
- Atlantic hawksbill sea turtleEnglish
- Hawk's-bill turtleEnglish
- HawksbillEnglish
- Hawksbill turtleEnglish
- Hawksbill turtleEnglish
- Hawksbill turtleEnglish
- Hawksbill turtleEnglish
- Pacific hawksbill sea turtleEnglish
- ValkbekseeskilpadAfrikaans
- لجأة صقرية المنقارArabic
- اللجأة صقريَّة المنقارArabic
- سلحفاة صقرية المنقارArabic
- tartuga careiAsturian
- БисаBulgarian
- bisаBulgarian
- Pacific Hawksbillbib
- HagganChamorro
- kareta praváCzech
- crwban môr gwalchbigWelsh
- Crwbanod Môr GwalchbigWelsh
- KaretteskildpaddeDanish
- Echte KarettschildkröteGerman
- ΚεραμοχελώναGreek
- MartestudoEsperanto
- CareySpanish
- tortuga careySpanish
- tortuga carey del pacificoSpanish
- tortuga de careySpanish
- Tortuga-marina de careySpanish
- karettikilpikonnaFinnish
- caretFrench
- Tortue à bec de fauconFrench
- Tortue à bec fauconFrench
- Tortue à écaillesFrench
- Tortue bonne écailleFrench
- tortue caretFrench
- tortue imbriquéeFrench
- צב ים קרניHebrew
- közönséges cserepesteknősHungarian
- Penyu SisikIndonesian
- tartaruga embricataItalian
- タイマイJapanese
- 대모Korean
- 매부리바다거북Korean
- bisaLithuanian
- Fano haraMalagasy
- HonuMāori
- Penyu KarahMalay
- လိပ်စွန်Burmese
- KarettNorwegian Bokmål
- Ekte KarettNorwegian Bokmål
- karetschildpadDutch
- KarètPapiamento
- NgasPalauan
- żółw szylkretowyPolish
- Tartaruga-do-MarPortuguese
- tartaruga-de-casco-vinhoPortuguese
- Tartaruga-de-escamaPortuguese
- Tartaruga-de-EscamasPortuguese
- Tartaruga-de-PentePortuguese
- tartaruga-de-pente-do-atlânticoPortuguese
- tartaruga-de-pente-do-pacíficoPortuguese
- tartaruga-legítimaPortuguese
- Tartaruga-VerdadeiraPortuguese
- Verdadeiro-CareiPortuguese
- биссаRussian
- moosni quipáacalcSeri
- prava karetaSlovenian
- அழுங்காமைTamil
- เต่ากระThai
- PawikanFilipino
- şahin gagalı kaplumbağaTurkish
- БісаUkrainian
- БіссаUkrainian
- Карета справжняUkrainian
- справжня кареттаUkrainian
- Atlantic Hawksbillroot
- 毒瑁Chinese
- 太平洋玳瑁Chinese
- 玳瑁Chinese
- 鷹嘴海龜Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistITISTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the hawksbill sea turtle
Other species in the same family Cheloniidae.
Green sea turtle
Chelonia mydas
Loggerhead sea turtle
Caretta caretta
Olive ridley sea turtle
Lepidochelys olivacea
Kemp's ridley sea turtle
Lepidochelys kempii
Flatback sea turtle
Natator depressus
CompareHawksbill sea turtle vs Green sea turtleHawksbill sea turtle vs Loggerhead sea turtleHawksbill sea turtle vs Olive ridley sea turtleHawksbill sea turtle vs Kemp's ridley sea turtle
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
How heavy is a hawksbill sea turtle?
An adult Hawksbill sea turtle has a body mass of 64.65 kg, with reported values from 62.3 to 67 kg.
What does the hawksbill sea turtle eat?
Its main food is benthic animal.
Is the hawksbill sea turtle endangered?
Yes. The IUCN Red List classifies it as Critically Endangered, a threatened category.
How long does a hawksbill sea turtle live?
The hawksbill sea turtle has a lifespan of 20 years.
What kind of animal is the hawksbill sea turtle?
It is a reptile in the turtles and tortoises subgroup, placed in the family Cheloniidae, superfamily Chelonioidea and order Testudines.
Who named the hawksbill sea turtle?
Its scientific name, Eretmochelys imbricata, carries the authority (Linnaeus, 1766).
How many eggs does a hawksbill sea turtle lay?
It lays 136 eggs per clutch and 3 clutches per year, and the eggs incubate for 60.6 days.
When does a hawksbill sea turtle reach sexual maturity?
It reaches sexual maturity at 20.7 years, with reported values from 17.2 to 33 years.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/hawksbill-sea-turtle
“Hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/hawksbill-sea-turtle.
@misc{hawksbill_sea_turtle_2026,
title = {Hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/hawksbill-sea-turtle},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}