Species profile
Lepidochelys olivacea
Olive ridley sea turtle
VU · Vulnerable — Vulnerable — high risk of extinction in the wild
About this species
Olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Vulnerable. Olive ridleys nest in arribadas — mass, synchronised arrivals where hundreds of thousands of females climb the same beach within days. Its recorded population direction is decreasing, so the category needs to be read alongside continuing losses of individuals or local populations.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with marine, coastal. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. They are the smallest sea turtles, yet some of the widest-ranging, crossing entire oceans. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
No one fully knows how thousands of ridleys coordinate an arribada; scientists suspect they respond to shared environmental cues like lunar cycles and storm swells. The catalogue records 3 principal pressures for this profile: Bycatch, Egg harvesting, Coastal development. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Protecting and reconnecting habitat is a priority, together with infrastructure planning that keeps feeding, breeding or migration routes functional. Fishery management needs enforceable limits, more selective gear, bycatch reduction and coordinated compliance across jurisdictions. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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