Australian Flatback

Common Name: Australian flatback - named because its shell is very flat.

Scientific Name: Natator depressus

Status:International - Listed as Data Deficient (inadequate information to make a direct, or indirect, assessment of its risk of extinction based on its distribution and/or population status) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Range: Most restricted range of all sea turtle species, limited to the coastal waters of the northwestern, northern and northeastern regions of Australia and the Gulf of Papua, New Guinea.

Size: Up to 39 inches in carapace length.

Weight: Average of 198 pounds.

Characteristics: Head has a single pair of prefrontal scales (scales in front of its eyes). Carapace is bony without ridges and has large, non-overlapping, scutes (scales) present with only 4 lateral scutes. Carapace is oval or round and body is very flat. Flippers have 1 claw. Edge of carapace is folded and covered by thin, non-overlapping waxy scutes. Carapace is olive-grey with pale brown/yellow tones on margins and the flippers creamy white. The scutes of the hatchlings form a unique dark-grey reticulate pattern, and the center of each scute is olive colored.

Habitat: Prefer turbid inshore waters, bays, coastal coral reef and grassy shallows.

Diet: Apparently eats sea cucumbers, jellyfish, mollusks, prawns, bryozoans, other invertebrates and seaweed.

Nesting: Nests 4 times per season. Lays an average of 50 eggs in each nest.

Population Estimate*: 7,500 nesting females.

* Please understand that world wide population numbers for sea turtle species do not exist and that these are estimates of the number of nesting females based on nesting beach monitoring reports and publications from the early to mid 1990s.