Nocturnal feeding

[cdmay]

Went out last night to bring in the red-foots and discovered one of my females feeding on flowers in the dark.

It has rained, at times very heavily, for the past three days and so the tortoises have all been hiding and inactive. But for a short while last night it quit raining and so this one girl decided to come out and get some of the hibiscus flowers that the rain knocked off the trees.
There was light coming from the house and that provided some illumination but otherwise it was pretty darn dark.
On other occasions I have witnessed females walking directly to their water dish in full darkness after they finished nesting. They seemed to know just where they were going.
Makes you wonder how well they can see at night.

 

[reneereichert]

Awesome you were able to see her out and get the photos!! She's beautiful

 

[Redstrike]

That is a beautiful female you have, check out those head and neck colors! I'd guess that if they can't see too well at night, they may be able to navigate pretty well with their noses. Perhaps the water dish emits an odor they're in tune to...? No question they can smell the hibiscus flowers, I've been impressed by my two RF's sense of smell.

 

[Grigor.Love.]

Bed time snack!

 

[pdrobber]

interesting! looks quite bulbous compared to other redfoots to me...

 

[ascott]

She is absolutely beautiful.....getting her munchie on in peace and quiet...

 

[fbsmith3]

Not related at all, but maybe a Turtle/Tortoise internal GPS.

I keep my Box turtle in an enclosure in the back yard, I noticed some sluggs on the front yard hostas. Since I don't use chemicals, the sluggs have a feast on my poor hostas. I know Cleo loves sluggs, but I just hate touching their slimmyness. So I brought her out to feast on the sluggs. She ate until she was full then basked a bit, so I returned her to her enclosure. 3 days later, 1 hour after putting her into her enclosure, I could not find her, I looked everywhere. My son called from the front yard that he had found her.

She must have dug out a weak section she found in her enclosure and walked at least 10 yards straight to the Hostas and slug feast. Somehow she knew exactly where her favorite food was.

 

[ascott]

They have some extra awesome sensory mechanisms that is for sure.....torts can be removed from their native ground and moved miles away and they will find their way back .....it is absolutely amazing, IMO

 

[Madkins007]

Well, we know they can see somewhat into either the IR or UV area and all colors, and that they have a well-enough developed sense of smell to follow scent tracks.

I know we say these are a diurnal species, but I cannot count how many times I have seen or heard mine moving around indoors in the dark.