A CURIOSITY OF NATURE

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33917, 9 August 1975, Page 11

A CURIOSITY OF NATURE

(By

DAVID GUNSTON)

The detached, “slowdragging” tortoise, the favourite pet of countless children, is in fact a curiosity of the animal kingdom.

Imprisoned for life within its handsomely-marked shell of expandable; horny plates, ponderous, sluggish, yet intelligent, with a head, tail and limbs significantly reminiscent of some prehistoric reptile, it is nevertheless most tenacious of its calm, unhurried life. In fact, it can truly be said of a tortoise that it. paradoxically lives longer, and yet less, than almost any other land creature. A tortoise’s span of life can reach 100 or more, partly because in cooler countries, at least, it hibernates for six months of the year and lives out the other six at a far slower, less hectic pace than the other inhabitants of this planet. Part of the secret of tor-

toise longevity also lies in its unique bony structure. The creature’s skeletal design, with ribs and breast-bone flattened and fused on to the shell, and constricted inner shoulderblades, allows no room for lung expansion. Air intake This means that although a tortoise has relatively large lungs, it must breathe with the throat muscles only, expanding these with the air intake outside the shell. Such respiration is necessarily limited, and so makes for a sluggish way of life. If they are slow-living, tortoises are also slow at dying, remaining long in a torpid state before expiring. One specimen survived decapitation to walk 200 yards 24 hours later. Long lives Even those who have survived family changes

for perhaps half a century are still far from elderly. There are proven cases of tortoises Jiving to be 128, >O2 and 96. and there is some reason , for believing that the giant reptile kept by successive Bishops of Peterborough which died in 1821 was then well over 200 years old. There are also known cases of pet tortoises which have escaped from captivity and lived to a considerable age (and usually great size) in a wild state in fields and thickets. Individual small tortoises were introduced into Britain and other European countries by returning sailors as early as the sixteenth century, and were soon discovered to thrive readily in captivity. Tortoises are undoubtedly more intelligent than is generally realised. They survey the immediate world intently through bird-like, three-lidded eyes,

knowing their own territory intimately. Strong shell They have good senses of taste, smell and touch, and n always useful splitsecond instinctive reaction to withdraw inside the shell at the inkling of danger With a large animal that shell can bear a load of as much as 2501 b without harm to its occupant. Tortoise courtship, rarely seen in temperate countries. also suggests a high intelligence. the male wooing the female for many days on end. making shrill piping noises, at her. and tapping on her shell with his own. Althoueh thev are devoted mates, however, tori' »s la<K any parental feeling, leaving the sun's heat to hatch out their eggs and never paying the • ■•He'-t heed to the per-fectly-formed. thumbnaiisizeo babies that emerge a month later.