In it, while the hare sprints, gets tired midway and sleeps, the slow but steady tortoise walks on and on and ultimately, wins the race.

Well, it has happened in real life too! A leatherback turtle has set the record for 'the longest trip for marine vertebrae between breeding and feeding sites'. It swam 20,558 kilometres, non-stop for 647 days, to 'win' the first place!

In biological terms tortoises are a kind of turtle. In general, turtles live in or near the water and have adapted to swim by holding their breath underwater. Tortoises live primarily in waterless regions, walk on sandy grounds and store water in their body.

Of the eight sea turtle species, the leatherback at 440 kilos, 6 feet long and 4 feet wide, is the largest. They are the also deepest diving turtles going down to 1200 metres.

Leatherback turtles do not have a hard shell like other sea turtles. Instead they have a thick layer of cartilage (like the hard material found in your ears and nose) strengthened by tiny bones.

The leatherback turtles live in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The record setting turtle belonged to the Western Pacific leatherbacks that nest in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Islands of the South Pacific and travel across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of the US to hunt for food.

Like all members of the Turtle family, the female leatherbacks come ashore to lay their eggs.

When it is time to lay the eggs, the female comes out of the Ocean and heads for dry ground. She makes the 'nest' by sweeping sand and digging a pit with her front feet.  The turtle then lays about 60 to 70 white, round eggs. Then come 30 more eggs, which are unfertilized and smaller in size. Biologists think that they could be for protection of the fertile eggs.

After this the female fills up the hole with sand returns to the sea. The entire process takes just 2 hours. After ten days, she will come back to lay another 100 eggs nearby. Altogether, she will do this, seven or eight times in a season!

After about fifty to ninety days of incubation, the eggs begin to hatch. Four days later, they dig their way up and emerge from the earth and head for the sea.

Dangers lurk throughout. In addition to the natural predators, human activity plays a big role here. Scientists engaged in studying the leatherbacks discovered that at the beach in French Guiana, poachers regularly raided the nests and sold the eggs to distant lands. They also slaughtered the female turtles for meat.

Turtles also get killed and injured in collisions with boats. Rubbish dumped at sea, are often swallowed by the turtles, causing severe injuries and death. Many times, turtles get trapped in fishing nets and drown.
So it is not surprising that the leatherback is now in the list of endangered animals.

Scott Benson, research biologist for the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is one of those committed to preserving the leatherbacks. He was the one who tracked the record setting turtle and presented the details of the astonishing journey at a recent symposium.  The turtle was fitted with an electronic tag in Indonesia in 2003. The animal reached Oregon coast, USA and then headed to Hawaii before the battery on the satellite transmitter gave out. Researchers hope that the amazing story of the epic, 13,000-mile journey in search of food would draw people's attention to the animal and aid in saving the species.