Tort friends video

[sopo]

My daughter posted this on my facebook. I just loved it and wanted to share.

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK9Xj7eY0UU[/video]

 

[ascott]

I would present this simple question to you? How do you suppose the tort ended up wrong side up to begin with? Perhaps with some help from the "friend"?

Almost any vid can tailor designed to ignite a human emotion, I would ask you to look at this vid with some raw tortoise behavior eyes...

Torts are territorial, can become gladiators...can flip one another, circle the flipped tort and then ram and ram and ram...and in the moment of perpetual ramming the losing tort can right itself...only to find it is still a target of another determined tort....especially if two males are occupying the same space....

I would love to feel warm and fuzzy about this vid...but I have seen this very scenario played out and there was no friend helping another friend...but rather one tort viciously attacking the other, which is what they do...

Just sharing a different perspective with you is all....

 

[sissyofone]

I Love It..That was so cool. Yet scary...It did seem as though the smaller one that helped flipped the big one maybe had more on its mind.

 

[Tom]

This is the third go around for this video on this forum. This is tortoise aggression. NOT friendly behavior.

 

[sopo]

Didn't know it had been posted before. If it was aggression, why would he turn the tort back over and walk off with them? I also have a question about solitaire tendencies. Sometimes, you see articles about a tortoise taking up with another animal such as the one going around with the tort and great danes. Could there be exceptions to the rule in which some torts actually like company? When I had my first sulcata juvi we put a fake resin tort in her enclosure. She would go over and rub her head on it and sleep next to it. Never rammed it or was aggressive to it though. Also, like the story of Owen and Mzee... the tort that become friends with the baby hippo. Just seems that while they are a solitary animal... that there might be some exceptions.

 

[ascott]

why would he turn the tort back over and walk off with them

If you watch the video (turn the music off so the fuzzy human emotion button is not on) you will clearly see that the one behind is not walking off with the other--but watch his head, see how it is near the rear of the tort, near the legs---this is a herding behavior to show dominance/chase....also, look how the flipped tort is keeping his head tucked in during most of the time while flipped...when a tort is flipped and trying to flip itself back over it will extend its head full and use it to aid in flipping back over--he is keeping his head in to avoid it being bitten...then at the last moment when the other tort is rallying up for a push/ram he extends his head to flip and get out of there...I know this is hard to grasp...it is not warm and fuzzy.

There are always exceptions to any rule, always. Does this mean a tort longs for companionship from another tort or does this mean the tort has figured out that the person or animal represents food opportunity, or a source of warmth (mammals are warm bodied) or are there a hundred other reasons?

Don't get me wrong, some animals do seem amused by other animals (us included)....and while I do believe an animal can associate other animals with certain acts/comforts...I would not think that if a person were removed from the torts life it would miss the person, but would rather miss what happens/comes with the human being present....does that make sense?

 

[mike taylor]

Awesome !!

Sent from my C771 using TortForum mobile app

 

[Oxalis]

First time I saw this video, I got so emotional my eyes teared up! XD