Do Turtles Lay Eggs? (with Pictures and Videos)

Baby turtles are some of the cutest animals in the world. But have you ever wondered how they come to be? Do they come from eggs? Or do turtles give live birth? Here is the answer.

All turtle species reproduce by laying eggs. The amount, shape, and color of the eggs can differ greatly from species to species. Sea turtles will lay over 100 small white round eggs, while the box turtle will lay just 2 or 3 elongated eggs.

Everything about the turtle egg laying process interesting and quite different from most people might expect. From how turtles mate, which involves fighting, singing, and spitting water in each other’s faces, to the way they choose a place to lay the eggs themselves. So let’s take a closer look at how turtles lay eggs.

Where do Turtles Lay Their Eggs?

Unlike most animals, turtles won’t stay and take care of their eggs, so the place where they lay their eggs has to be hidden from any potential predator.

In general, a good place for turtles to lay their eggs must have: enough sunlight to keep the earth worm, enough moisture to keep the eggs hydrated, and be in a place where predators won’t find the eggs easily.

Semiaquatic turtles that live in lakes and ponds will usually look for an area with dense vegetation, and when they found one that meets all the requirements, they will dig a hole in the ground and lay their eggs there.

River turtles will often dig their nest in sandbars.

Sea turtles lay their eggs on beaches. The interesting part about this is that sea turtles always lay their eggs on the beach that they were born. They will always return to the same beach to lay their eggs. If they are unable to lay their eggs on that beach, sea turtles prefer not to lay their eggs at all, then to go to another beach, eve if turtles from its own species are using it.

All turtles, except for one species, lay their eggs on land. Even sea turtles, that spend most of their life in water, will come out on land to lay their eggs. Most turtle eggs won’t be able to hatch if they spend time submerged in water.

The only exception to this is the northern snake-necked turtle that lives in Australia. In the 1980s, the Australian biologist Rob Kenneth discovered that this species will lay its eggs in water. This turtle species lives in wetlands, known as Billabong, that alternate seasonally between dry and wet. The northern snake-necked turtles laid their eggs in water during the wet season. After the wet season passes and the dry season comes, the water will go away, and the eggs will usually hatch. So the babies aren’t born underwater, but they are able to survive until they hatch.

How Many Eggs Do Turtles Lay?

The amount of eggs that a turtle will lay depends on its species, here is a list of how many eggs certain turtle species lay:

Red eared slider turtles: 10 to 30 eggs
Box turtles: 3 to 9 eggs
Snapping turtles: 20 to 40 eggs
Mud turtles: 2 to 5 eggs
Green sea turtles: 100 to 120 eggs
Flat back turtles: 50 to 60 eggs
Leatherback turtles: 100 to 120 eggs

If you want to know why there is such a big difference between the amount of eggs laid and the species of the turtles, you should check out this article: How Many Eggs do Turtles Lay? (with Examples)

Why Do Turtles Lay So Many Eggs?

Turtles lay so many eggs because they don’t and can’t defend their eggs and their babies.

While turtles are quite good at defending themselves from predators due to their shell, they are not so good at scaring off or attacking other animals. So if they were to try to defend their eggs or their babies they will fail completely, and they will also endanger themselves.

So the only way thing that they can do to ensure that their species survive is to lay as many eggs as possible. And hope that they will survive.

While for us this might seem kind of cruel, to abandon the eggs and the babies, it is the only thing that they can do. And by looking at how widespread turtles are as a species, it seems to be working for them.

How Turtles Mate

While turtles can seem quite boring at first sight, their mating process is anything but. It involves fighting, music, spitting water in the face of the turtle they like, and many other bizarre thing. So let’s take a closer look at it.

The first part of the mating process is the courtship phase. Turtles have some of the most brutal, strangest and funniest mating rituals that you can find.

When two male turtles will be interested in the same female, they will engage into a fight. During those fights, it’s common to see them charging at each other head-on, bite and scratch each other. The most dangerous thing is that sometimes one of the turtles will get turned on its back, and once a turtle is turned over, there is no way for them to turn back.

Instead of fighting, some turtle species have a more musical way of competing with each other. Male painted, slider and map turtles have very long claws, and they use them for a mating process called titillation. In this process, the male extends his front feet and vibrates his long claws in the water in front of the female, creating various sounds, and waves in the water.

Other male turtles have even stranger ways to attract the female. The males of some turtle species will spit water in the face of the female that they are courting. It’s funny to see that spitting in somebody’s face can mean so many things. Nobody is sure why female turtles are attracted to this, but it definitely seems to work.

After a male successfully attracts a female, the copulation will begin. And after some time passes, the female turtle will have to go through the birthing process.

Turtles Birth Process

There are three ways an animal can give birth, those three ways are called: Oviparous, Viviparous, and Viviparous. I was also really surprised to find out there are actually three ways and not only two. Those names don’t say too much about the birth processes, so let me explain them to you in a few words.

Oviparous, this is the name of the birth process where the female will lay eggs, from which babies will come out. This is also the type of birth that turtles use. Other animals that give birth this way are birds, insects, and most snake species.

Viviparous, is the name of the birth process where the female will give birth to live babies. Until the female gives birth to the babies, they will stay inside her and develop. When the babies are completely developed, the female will give birth to them. During this process, there is no kind of egg involved. This is also the process that most mammals use when giving birth.

Viviparous, the third type of birth process, is basically a combination of the other two. This time the female will produce eggs, but she will not lay them. She will keep them inside of her until the babies hatch. When the babies are ready, they will break out of the eggs, and then the mother will go through the process of giving live birth.

Turtles, along with crocodile and birds, are the only animals that give birth only by laying eggs. Other animals that are known to lay eggs, like fishes and snakes, have some species that will use different types of birth.

Do Turtles Lay Eggs Without Mating?

Yes, female turtles will lay eggs even if there is no male around to mate with them.

Female turtles will lay eggs every year, even if they didn’t mate. The difference is that the eggs won’t be fertilized, so no baby turtles will come out of them.

How Do Turtle Eggs Look Like?

Typically, turtle eggs have a very plain look. Unlike bird eggs, turtle eggs don’t have so many color or shape variations. Turtle eggs are white or cream-colored, and don’t have any kind of pattern on them. They do vary a little, some species lay perfectly spherical eggs, while others lay slightly elongated eggs. The only thing that can vary greatly between the eggs is the texture of the shell. Some turtle species lay hard shelled eggs, like chicken eggs, while other lay eggs with a leather-like texture.

Here are a couple of pictures that will show you some bird eggs, and some turtle eggs, so you can observe the difference better.