Commas to clarify meaning: olive ridley turtle
Learning Objective
We are learning to use commas to clarify meaning and avoid ambiguity.
Context: olive ridley sea turtle
Credit: BBC One - Spy in the Wild
Clip Description
The olive ridley sea turtle gets its name from the olive colour of its hard shell. They live in the warm waters of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and return to the same beach where they hatched to lay their own eggs. It is the second smallest and most abundant of all the sea turtles found in the world.
In this fascinating clip, we see the Great Turtle Arribada – the mass synchronised turtle nesting, which is a phenomenon unique to the olive ridley sea turtle. Every day, up to 20,000 turtles arrive to compete for a place to lay eggs of their own. How do you think the film makers managed to get so close to this fascinating event in nature? Watch the clip to find out.
Word Challenge
Can you list some strong verbs that describe the movements of the turtles on the beach? You could expand your words into phrases or clauses.
e.g. hauling (fin-shaped flippers haul), sweeping (massive flippers sweeping sand), …