Sea Turtle Colouring Pages: Australia's Six Turtles to Colour

Looking for sea turtle colouring pages for a little one? You can print a free sea turtle page from the Sparkle Bay free pages sampler. Below you'll find the six sea turtles that live in Australian waters, each with one true fact to share as your child colours. There are also some gentle ideas for turtle season, which is about to begin on Queensland beaches.

Most sea turtle printables online are generic, and many say nothing true about the animal. A turtle page gets more interesting when you can tell your child which turtle it might be and where it lives.

Get a free sea turtle colouring page

Our free sampler has five big, simple pages: a sea turtle, a koala, a baby unicorn, a mermaid princess and a baby dragon. Each one has thick outlines made for small hands, and you can print as many copies as you like.

Print at 100%, not "fit to page", so the lines stay bold.
Plain A4 paper is fine for crayons and pencils.
Use thicker paper for markers so the ink doesn't come through to the table.

If your child loves animal pages, the Australian animals colouring pages post has nine more Australian animals, each with a fact.

Australia's six sea turtles, with a fact for each

There are seven living kinds of sea turtle in the world, according to Wikipedia's sea turtle entry, and six of them are found in Australia, says the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. That makes a sea turtle page a nice way to talk about animals close to home.

Turtle	One true fact	Colouring idea
Green turtle	Named for the green colour of its fat, not its shell	A brown shell with a little green hidden inside
Loggerhead	Has a big head and strong jaws for crunching sea urchins	Draw a sea urchin nearby to crunch
Hawksbill	Has a pointy beak like a bird of prey	A patterned shell, tile by tile
Flatback	Only nests in Australia	A flat, olive grey shell
Olive ridley	The smallest sea turtle, with a heart-shaped shell	A grey-green heart on its back
Leatherback	The biggest sea turtle, with ridges along its shell	Stripes running nose to tail

Green turtle

The Australian Museum explains that the green turtle "gets its name from the colour of its fat rather than the colour of its carapace". Grown-up green turtles eat seagrass and algae, and a mother lays about 100 eggs in a nest she digs with her flippers. That gives you a lovely counting game: how many eggs can your child draw in the sand?

Loggerhead

Loggerheads grow up to 1.2 m long and have large heads with strong jaws for cracking hard-shelled food like sea urchins (DBCA). Mon Repos and the beaches near Bundaberg are home to one of the largest loggerhead nesting sites in the South Pacific, according to Bundaberg Regional Council.

Hawksbill

The hawksbill has a beak shaped like a bird of prey's and a beautifully patterned shell (DBCA). It's the perfect turtle for a child who likes filling in small shapes one at a time.

Flatback: Australia's own turtle

The flatback is the one to mention if your child asks which turtle is "ours". The Sea Turtle Foundation says flatbacks are "found only in Australia and are not known to nest anywhere else in the world". Their olive grey shell is flatter than other turtles' and curls up at the edges, and it grows to about 90 cm long. The biggest known nesting beach is Crab Island, off western Cape York.

Olive ridley

At up to 70 cm, the olive ridley is the smallest sea turtle, and it has a grey-green shell shaped like a heart (DBCA). Children often love that detail. Try asking them to find the heart.

Leatherback

The leatherback is the giant of the family. It can reach 2.5 m and 900 kg, and its shell has long ridges instead of hard plates (DBCA). Lay a tape measure out on the floor to 2.5 m and it soon becomes clear how big that is.

Turtle facts for little questions

Colouring time is often when the questions come. Here are a few true answers to have ready, all from Wikipedia's sea turtle entry:

Can a sea turtle hide in its shell? No. Unlike many turtles and tortoises, sea turtles can't pull their heads or flippers inside.
Do turtles breathe underwater? No. They have lungs and come up to breathe, but a sleeping sea turtle can stay under for 4 to 7 hours.
Do they go home? Many females come back to nest on the same beach where they hatched.
How long do they live? Sea turtles tend to live a long time, often more than 70 years.

One more fact that little ones find surprising: whether a baby turtle hatches as a boy or a girl depends on how warm the nest is. State of the World's Sea Turtles explains that warmer nests make more girls and cooler nests make more boys. You could colour one nest in warm sunny colours and one in cool shady colours, then talk about which babies might hatch.

Turtle season is nearly here

Around Bundaberg, turtle nesting season typically runs from November to March, says Bundaberg Regional Council. Over the coming months you may see turtles in the news, which makes this a good time for a turtle page.

The council also explains why lights matter. Even faint light near the beach can confuse baby turtles and draw them away from the water, towards roads and homes. People living near nesting beaches can help by:

Turning off outdoor lights at night.
Closing curtains and blinds so indoor light stays inside.
Keeping dogs on a lead near nests and hatchlings.
Reporting a sick, injured or stranded turtle on the QWildlife app or by calling 1300 130 372.

A gentle colouring prompt to go with this is to draw a dark night sky over the beach, with a bright moon over the water to show the babies the way to the sea.

Ways to use a sea turtle page

At home

One fact a page. Read a fact from the table above before your child starts, then see if they remember it at the end.
Make a turtle beach. Cut out the coloured turtle and stick it onto a sheet coloured like sand and sea.
Quiet time. A single big turtle is a calm activity before bed. Our quiet activities before bed post has more ideas like it.

In the classroom

Six turtles, six tables. Give each group one turtle and its fact, then have them share with the class.
Real or story? Pair the turtle page with the mermaid page from the sampler and sort facts into "real" and "story". Our mermaid colouring pages post has sea facts that work well for this.
Map it. Mark Bundaberg and Cape York on a map of Australia and stick the coloured turtles beside them.

Print your free sea turtle page

Download the free sampler from the Sparkle Bay free pages page, print the sea turtle and choose a fact from the table to share while your child colours. If they want more Australian animals afterwards, My First Australian Animals has 30 to colour, each with its name in bubble letters, on our books page.

Questions and answers

Is there a free sea turtle colouring page I can print?

Yes. The Sparkle Bay free sampler includes a sea turtle page, along with a koala, a baby unicorn, a mermaid princess and a baby dragon. It prints on A4 or letter paper.

How many kinds of sea turtle live in Australia?

Six of the world's seven sea turtle species are found in Australian waters: green, loggerhead, hawksbill, flatback, olive ridley and leatherback.

Which sea turtle is only found in Australia?

The flatback. It is not known to nest anywhere else in the world, though some feed as far away as Indonesia and southern Papua New Guinea.

What colours should my child use for a sea turtle?

Real sea turtles are mostly olive, grey, brown and gold, but any colour is fine on a colouring page. Offer the real colours as one choice, not a rule.

When do baby sea turtles hatch in Queensland?

Around Bundaberg, nesting typically runs from November to March, and hatchlings appear in the warmer months that follow the first nests.

Sources

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