- Joined
- Sep 5, 2012
- Messages
- 57
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.
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
-----
Edit: The Gerlach 2006 paper is attached to this post.