Tiny, wide-eyed and helpless, there's something adorable about baby turtles. In fact, so small are the newborn hatchlings that they can comfortably sit in the palm of your hand as they gaze up at the world around themselves. Indeed, many species of turtles are just as vulnerable as they look, and are coming dangerously close to the precipice of extinction - the very real risk that they face from their natural predators, as well as from mankind, illustrated by the ease with which they can be picked up to be admired. Another reason for the infants' defenselessness is that they have no one to look after them or to defend them. When turtles are ready to lay their eggs, they bury them in mud or sand and leave them to incubate themselves. On hatching the babies, which can number up to a dozen, wriggle to the surface and head towards water - but there are no known species of turtle in which the mothers care for their young, instead leaving their children to fend for themselves against