Interesting Study On Foraging Behavior and Diet In The Wild

Blastoise

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This study was done in 1999 in Uzbekistan. The tortoises were only active 3 months out of the year, 9 months of hibernation! They were only active <2 hours per favorable day and forged for <15 min per day. They also buried themselves at night in sand, and ate lots of poppies, a plant the tortoise table says never to feed. Very interesting read.
 

Maro2Bear

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Interesting study & thanks for sharing. After a quick read through all the data & observations, seems like this was more of a “one off” one time anecdotal observation rather than a multi-year analysis with a solid definitive conclusion. The time spent observing seems to only have been in a single year, and in that timeframe only roughly 6 weeks total.

Observations
Using continuous focal observations (Altmann 1974, Martin and Bateson 1993), 10×binoculars, and a non-disturbing observation distance (ca 10 m), steppe tortoise behaviour was observed during the mating season, (=M: 27 March–14 April 1999) and during the post-mating season (=PM: 15 April–18 May 1999).

Anyhow, always interesting to read these types of studies. Looking back at things, I wish that I would have chosen a tortoise topic to study at University rather than diversity in Drosophila melanogaster (aka fruit flies).
 

method89

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Interesting study & thanks for sharing. After a quick read through all the data & observations, seems like this was more of a “one off” one time anecdotal observation rather than a multi-year analysis with a solid definitive conclusion. The time spent observing seems to only have been in a single year, and in that timeframe only roughly 6 weeks total.

Observations
Using continuous focal observations (Altmann 1974, Martin and Bateson 1993), 10×binoculars, and a non-disturbing observation distance (ca 10 m), steppe tortoise behaviour was observed during the mating season, (=M: 27 March–14 April 1999) and during the post-mating season (=PM: 15 April–18 May 1999).

Anyhow, always interesting to read these types of studies. Looking back at things, I wish that I would have chosen a tortoise topic to study at University rather than diversity in Drosophila melanogaster (aka fruit flies).
there seems to be some discrepencies there..

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method89

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I would assume/hope that they were there for multiple years.
 

Blastoise

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I think this paper uses their research and several other academic research studies that were done. They list sources after a lot of the sentences and paragraphs.
 
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