Swimming and floating tortoises

[AldabraNerd]

Hi All,

There are some questions and thoughts scattered through this thread about tortoises and swimming/floating. I thought I'd add a bit of info here in one place, where it can expanded on by others.

So yes, many tortoises float very well. That's how they ended up on isolated oceanic islands pretty much around the world. The two largest surviving tortoise species, Galapagos & Aldabra giants, float exceptionally well and can survive for a long time in sea water.

One amazing case was reported in a paper by Gerlach & coauthors, in 2006.
The abstract reads:

The single most amazing part of this paper is the photo of the tortoise, covered in barnacles on the lower half:

The size of the barnacles indicates that this tortoise had been drifting for a minimum of 6-7 weeks!

According to prevailing ocean currents, the Aldabra Atoll is indeed the likely point of origin of this tortoise. I'll post a bit more on Aldabrans there, and their relationship with water, soon - just got to dig out them photos first

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Edit: The Gerlach 2006 paper is attached to this post.

 

[luvpetz27]

Amazing!!!!!!!!!
Thanx for sharing!!!

 

[Yellow Turtle]

Nice post. Thanks.

 

[AZtortMom]

I knew it

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

Wow, that is amazing. Thanks for sharing!

 

[sibi]

Well, that settles that...tortoises swim.

 

[Tony the tank]

Great info..

Thank you or taking the time to post this..

 

[mctlong]

Wow, that awesome!

Thank you for sharing!

 

[Yvonne G]

I can't stand it!!! I want to grab the tweezers and pick all those barnacles off.

 

[tortadise]

I can't stand it!!! I want to grab the tweezers and pick all those barnacles off.

Haha I know yvonne. My ocd is kicking in...must.........remove. Fascinating story though.

 

[Tom]

Wow. Never seen that before. I've heard of a few hours or days in the water to get from one island to another, but wow, that's pretty incredible.

 

[Shannon and Jason]

That's fascinating information I hope to hear more on this. Thanks!

 

[Baoh]

Awesome photo and information.

 

[cemmons12]

Wow, 6-7 weeks? Thats amazing!

 

[leonardo the tmnt]

That's amazing!!!

 

[biochemnerd808]

Wow. Tortoises just amaze me more and more every day. No wonder they have been around since the times of dinosaurs.

 

[Chinque]

Woah! That is SO cool! Thanks for sharing, I never knew that!

 

[wellington]

That is really amazing. I would have thought he would get totally dehydrated, the salt water and all. So, my question is, can they or have they adapted to be able to drink salt water and large amounts don't effect them? Do you think that he did t drink any but only absorb it and that doesn't effect them. Possibly, they can absorb salt water? That's a long time floating at sea. Thanks for sharing so, interesting.

 

[sibi]

Man, I've got my own theory on how this tort got those barnacles. During his swim, there was a rock protruding out on the middle of the ocean and he took a long long break before starting out again. Or else, he met a whale out there and bumped a ride. The whale and the tort shared the barnacles. How about that for a story? Isn't that incredible?

 

[AldabraNerd]

That is really amazing. I would have thought he would get totally dehydrated, the salt water and all. So, my question is, can they or have they adapted to be able to drink salt water and large amounts don't effect them? Do you think that he did t drink any but only absorb it and that doesn't effect them. Possibly, they can absorb salt water? That's a long time floating at sea. Thanks for sharing so, interesting.

I don't think/know of that tortoises can drink salt water. I'd think not, but simply that it lived off its internal reserves (which they can do for months). Probably it even used/lost less water by floating in the sea, than it would have in the dry & hot environs on Aldabra?

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Man, I've got my own theory on how this tort got those barnacles. During his swim, there was a rock protruding out on the middle of the ocean and he took a long long break before starting out again. Or else, he met a whale out there and bumped a ride. The whale and the tort shared the barnacles. How about that for a story? Isn't that incredible?

Yes, and out there, somewhere, is now a hybrid tortoise-whale creature swimming around, wondering where & who his parents are!