What Is A Group Of Turtles Called?


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A group of turtles is typically called a Bale. Other collective nouns include a nest, or less frequently, a dole. Although, the term Arribada has been used to describe the action of a group of sea turtles coming to shore to nest.

Why Is A Group Of Turtles Often Called A Bale?

The term bale is an interesting one to apply to turtles, so why is it commonly used?

The average wild sea turtle will lay between 75-125 eggs in each clutch!

Even a hatchling (baby turtle), will typically start out life on its own. Once they hatch they soon need to fend for themselves and will continue to do so if they survive predation.

From there, turtles will grow into largely territorial creatures, willing and able to be aggressive if necessary.

In fact, it is believed turtles can sense the presence of other turtles long before they get close.

Turtles are rather interesting reptiles, and as such, there are some unique terms and vocabulary used to describe them.

Term Meaning
Oviparous An animal that produces its young by a means of eggs that will hatch
Clutch The group of eggs laid by a mother turtle at one time.
Chelonian Term sued to describe both turtles and tortoises, collectively.
Hatchling A baby turtle
Gravid A pregnant turtle
Herpetoculture The practice of keeping and/or breeding turtles (or other reptiles and amphibians)
Herpetoculturist Someone who keeps and/or breeds turtles, along with other reptiles or amphibians
Incubation The time in between the moment an egg is laid to when it hatches
Finally

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We did turtle and tortoise rescue until we moved here. We really enjoyed it.

Also, one of the first things that I learned before working at the zoo, but through them - you had to do a lot of bookwork then to actually work with animals - was about turtles. Their Latin names, what their shells are called, etc. I'm not even sure why I remember that after all these years/decades!

Mostly, in our rescue work, we had box turtles, desert tortoises, and that one snapping turtle. In those days, to network with people who knew the in's and out's of whatever you were doing, you had to either call them, or write letters!

My best turtle guy lived in N.Y.! Well, in those days, that was an pretty expensive long distance call, so we exchanged snail mail letters. He was wonderful; a fountain of information. He's the one who helped me to get a box turtle out of hibernation when it seemed 'stuck' there.

Anyway, long history with turtles, which is one reason that I find it so thrilling that we have the hard to find turtles here, in our creek, and find them laying eggs periodically, like the one that we found this summer up here!