Can Sulcatas hear voices??

[linzmiz81]

I've been wondering this, now, for weeks... And read differing information. Can Sulcatas hear human voices?!? At first I read that they could only hear vibrations... And not hear voices at all... Then I read that they most certainly could hear human voices...And, I could swear that my girl, Missy, can hear my voice-and, again, I hate to sound nuts--(but thanks to Tom, I guess I don't sound nuts to all you fine tortoise lovers)--but I could swear that Missy recognizes my voices amongst others... Ok, am I nuts?!?! Or is that possible? Can these little guys hear voices and differentiate their owners voices from other voices? Thanks again, everyone!
Lindsay & "Missy"

 

[N2TORTS]

Like with most herps ... more likely to pick up on “ sound waves” ex: vibrations … more so , than what we consider
“ hearing a human voice”

And yes... Like notes on a piano we all give off different vibrations …even with day to day emotions and stressors.

 

[SANDRA_MEISSNEST]

I would say my can hear me.
in the morning I can never find them because they're all over the yard, so I call them... turtle turtle turtle I have no name for them.lol and after a few minutes ,because they so slow they come out and they come walking towards me because they know they getting always a special treat
so I think they can hear me

Sent from my ZTE N9120 using TortForum mobile app

 

[LeopardTortLover]

Most people tend to say no, they do not recognise different voices. But I have to disagree based on my personal experience. I believe my tortoise can:

A) Recognise my voice amongst other human voices "The Voice of Foooooooooood" as he will respond to my voice and not to anyone elses. He will walk to my voice and he wont with other people.
B) Recognise when I'm talking to him, and recognise when Im talking to somebody else. This again is due to his reactions. When I talk to him he responds, when im talking to another human he'll act like he cant hear me. Now I believe this is due to my tone of voice (vibrations). When Im talking to him I speak high pitched and excitable (yeah - I'm THAT kind of owner) whereas when im talking to someone I obvously talk monotone.

So I would say yes, they can hear their feeders (not owners) voice.

 

[mike taylor]

Why do you think he's crazy. Is he pacing and shaking his head a lot . You know like them people that walk around talking to them self . Lol I could not help it the topic made me laugh .

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[LeopardTortLover]

Re: RE: Can Sulcatas hear voices??

Why do you think he's crazy. Is he pacing and shaking his head a lot . You know like them people that walk around talking to them self . Lol I could not help it the topic made me laugh .

Sent from my C771 using TortForum mobile app

I thought the same :')

 

[Madkins007]

Sorry- science and facts are not on your side. Tortoises are well documented to only respond to the sounds of hatching eggs and fighting or mating tortoises. Neither their predators nor food make noises, so they never developed the need to listen or respond to it. They also do not use noises in the human voice range to communicate in any way, so why bother evolving that ability?

HOWEVER, I am 100% convinced they recognize their owners, most likely due to a combination of vibrations (voice and footfalls), smell (you and their food), visual cues, and even by following a pattern. They are certainly smart enough to figure this all out.

We humans have a hard time understanding how other animals perceive the world around us. We have a hard time understanding things like the importance of scent to a dog, how mosquitos 'see' us, etc. So, we assume that tortoises hear and see and smell just like we do- and they just don't. Their eyes, ears, and noses are all built very differently than ours.

Not convinced? Your dog will respond to your voice over the phone or a tape, so just try to talk to your tortoises over the phone or a tape. The few unofficial trials like this I am aware of have been failures.

IT DOES NOT mean you or your tortoise is dumb just because they can't hear or that you think they can- it actually means they are even smarter than you thought because they figured all this out!

 

[linzmiz81]

mike taylor Wrote:

Why do you think he's crazy. Is he pacing and shaking his head a lot . You know like them people that walk around talking to them self . Lol I could not help it the topic made me laugh .



Sent from my C771 using TortForum mobile app

I thought the same :')

Haha! You guys misunderstood my post, I think. I don't think "Missy" is crazy/"nuts" at all (in fact she is possibly the most sane one in our house!! Haha!!)... I wrote that I felt nuts for thinking that she could not only hear my voice, but recognize it from other voices. Make more sense? Haha!!

 

[Tom]

Sorry- science and facts are not on your side. Tortoises are well documented to only respond to the sounds of hatching eggs and fighting or mating tortoises. Neither their predators nor food make noises, so they never developed the need to listen or respond to it. They also do not use noises in the human voice range to communicate in any way, so why bother evolving that ability?

HOWEVER, I am 100% convinced they recognize their owners, most likely due to a combination of vibrations (voice and footfalls), smell (you and their food), visual cues, and even by following a pattern. They are certainly smart enough to figure this all out.

We humans have a hard time understanding how other animals perceive the world around us. We have a hard time understanding things like the importance of scent to a dog, how mosquitos 'see' us, etc. So, we assume that tortoises hear and see and smell just like we do- and they just don't. Their eyes, ears, and noses are all built very differently than ours.

Not convinced? Your dog will respond to your voice over the phone or a tape, so just try to talk to your tortoises over the phone or a tape. The few unofficial trials like this I am aware of have been failures.

IT DOES NOT mean you or your tortoise is dumb just because they can't hear or that you think they can- it actually means they are even smarter than you thought because they figured all this out!

I agree with Mark on this one. They know you by all the ruckus you make that is distinct from a ruckus made by someone else, or by smell or sight. They don't "hear" your voice.

I disagree on the dog thing though. Dogs have to be trained to respond to electronically transmitted or duplicated sound. I've tried to work very high level smart dogs at great distance through a high end walkie talkie. They don't "get" it. Over a period of days and with lots of time and effort, I can get them to respond, but not at first. Handy trick for my line of work for those times when the camera sees the whole world and you have to be impossibly far away.

 

[lighthiker2]

Here is the results page form a acoustic study (using several audiological testing modalities) done in the 1990s on tortoises. The scientific writeup was 26 pages long (link location attached fyi), so I will be concise.

The results (picture attached) indicate that they hear pretty well and that even their hearing is affected by temperature.

They hear mid and lower ranges better (do I see a reason for tortoises responding more to males?)…

With that knowledge in hand I am speaking to my Sully with a lower pitch…and noting that he is peeking out more when I call him. Perhaps someday he will follow his Food Goddess on walks when he is called instead of walking beside me at the park when my toenails are painted red

 

[AnnV]

Re: RE: Can Sulcatas hear voices??

Sorry- science and facts are not on your side. Tortoises are well documented to only respond to the sounds of hatching eggs and fighting or mating tortoises. Neither their predators nor food make noises, so they never developed the need to listen or respond to it. They also do not use noises in the human voice range to communicate in any way, so why bother evolving that ability?

HOWEVER, I am 100% convinced they recognize their owners, most likely due to a combination of vibrations (voice and footfalls), smell (you and their food), visual cues, and even by following a pattern. They are certainly smart enough to figure this all out.

We humans have a hard time understanding how other animals perceive the world around us. We have a hard time understanding things like the importance of scent to a dog, how mosquitos 'see' us, etc. So, we assume that tortoises hear and see and smell just like we do- and they just don't. Their eyes, ears, and noses are all built very differently than ours.

Not convinced? Your dog will respond to your voice over the phone or a tape, so just try to talk to your tortoises over the phone or a tape. The few unofficial trials like this I am aware of have been failures.

IT DOES NOT mean you or your tortoise is dumb just because they can't hear or that you think they can- it actually means they are even smarter than you thought because they figured all this out!

I agree with Mark on this one. They know you by all the ruckus you make that is distinct from a ruckus made by someone else, or by smell or sight. They don't "hear" your voice.

I disagree on the dog thing though. Dogs have to be trained to respond to electronically transmitted or duplicated sound. I've tried to work very high level smart dogs at great distance through a high end walkie talkie. They don't "get" it. Over a period of days and with lots of time and effort, I can get them to respond, but not at first. Handy trick for my line of work for those times when the camera sees the whole world and you have to be impossibly far away.

I sure wish I could untrain my dogs from responding to every doorbell they hear on the television!