The large head of the Loggerhead provides for muscle attachment to aid its massive jaws in capturing their favorite foods, crabs and clams. The adult loggerhead can reach a size of 4-5 feet in length weighing an average of 350 lbs. Males tend to be larger than females and can be distinguished by their large tail. Large nesting aggregations can be found in such places as, Oman in the Indian Ocean, Greece, Israel and Japan. However, Florida is now considered to be the most important place in the world for loggerhead nesting, averaging 80 to 90 thousand nests per year.
Loggerhead nesting takes place in late spring and peaks during the summer months.
Each night during the months of May through August, females pull their large bodies up onto coastal beaches to deposit clutches of eggs. A single female can deposit up to twelve nests in a single season. Hatchlings emerge during the night and use the natural moon and starlight reflecting off the surface of the ocean to find their way to the water. The hatchlings will remain in this sheltered environment for several years, at which point they will travel thousands of miles to coastal areas where they will then mature. Once mature, females will return to the beaches that they were born to continue the cycle.