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Sure turtles carry their own homes on their back, but why limit yourself to such a small hut when you can move in to a mansion instead? If you need more proof of how much he loves his home, then don’t miss the rest of the pictures.
Alligator turtles are tough enough to bite the hands off of anyone unfortunate enough to swim in the waters around them. If you’re wondering just how powerful their jaws are, just check out this impressive video.
Via BuzzFeed
If you still aren’t convinced that turtles are utterly adorable, then just look at this precious little guy working so hard for a few bites of delicious pumpkin pie. Is anyone else getting hungry?
Via BuzzFeed
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MLC Productions was on Nikoi Island in Indonesia last month to shoot a commercial. While they were on the beach, a nest of sea turtle eggs hatched! So they recorded the babies on their all-important trip from the sand to the ocean. The video is both cute and moving. Link -Thanks, Martin Yeoh!
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Dark Roasted Blend has a great article on turtles right now, complete with tons of great pictures and some interesting facts about the creatures. For example:
The rigid shell means turtles cannot breathe as other reptiles do, by changing the volume of their chest cavity via expansion and contraction of the ribs. Instead, turtles breathe in two ways. First, they employ buccal pumping, pulling air into their mouth, then pushing it into the lungs via oscillations of the floor of the throat. Secondly, by contracting the abdominal muscles that cover the posterior opening of the shell, the internal volume of the shell increases, drawing air into the lungs, allowing these muscles to function in much the same way as the mammalian diaphragm.
I don’t know about you guys, but this article makes me want to run off and adopt some new hard-shelled pets.
First it was kittens, and now it’s turtles! All of the animals are getting into the action — which is making trips to the vet difficult, I can tell you. It’s not the lightsabers that I mind so much as the mind tricks.
-via Nerd Bastards
Comments Off How do you diagnose a 150 pound turtle with seizures when she’s too big for a standard MRI machine? Find an MRI that’s big enough to fit her inside and then send her on the 300 mile long journey to the medical center where the machine is located. Fortunately, while the cause of the problem is still uncertain, Snorkel seems to be doing ok and tests have confirmed that she doesn’t have any cancer or brain tumors.
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Not just a pair of mating turtles, mind you. About 150 of them were trying to make it to a spot to lay their eggs; Runway 4 just happens to be in the turtles’ path to sandy beaches. It happens every year, but some years bring out more turtles than others. Though it delayed some flights yesterday morning, no one seems to be holding a grudge. Some airlines are even poking a little fun at the issue. Jet Blue tweeted, “Oh @JFKTurtles, we could never stay mad at you … Glad you made it to your honey moon spot safe.” Yes, JFK Turtles have a Twitter account.
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Scientists Nathan Putman and Ken Lohmann have determined that turtles can navigate across entire oceans by using the earth’s magnetic fields to determine their longitude and latitude. To test this hypothesis, they used a special water tank that permitted them to alter the magnetic fields inside. They then placed the turtles in the tank to see how they would respond to simulations of different locations:
Using his coil-surrounded tank, Lohmann could mimic the magnetic field at different parts of the Earth’s surface. If he simulated the field at the northern edge of the gyre, the hatchlings swam southwards. If he simulated the field at the gyre’s southern edge, the turtles swam west-northwest. These experiments showed that the turtles can use their magnetic sense to work out their latitude – their position on a north-south axis. Now, Putman has shown that they can also determine their longitude – their position on an east-west axis.
He tweaked his magnetic tanks to simulate the fields in two positions with the same latitude at opposite ends of the Atlantic. If the field simulated the west Atlantic near Puerto Rico, the turtles swam northeast. If the field matched that on the east Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands, the turtles swam southwest. In the wild, both headings would keep them within the safe, warm embrace of the North Atlantic gyre.
Link via Marginal Revolution | Photo by Flickr user coda used under Creative Commons license
YouTube user kakashi Julia spotted these baby turtles at a shopping mall in Malaysia. They’re remarkably agile climbers.
via Geekosystem
YouTube user ButterflysBone recorded her pet turtle desperately trying to get the attention of her pet cat. Cat, here’s some advice: there are some people with whom subtlety does not work.
via reddit
Louise Hill of Love to Cake is a London-based graphic designer and visual effects artist. That is her trade, but her passion is making fancy cakes. This sea turtle cake won her the gold medal at Britain’s 2009 Cake Show.
flickr photostream via reddit | Artist’s Website
The staff at the Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre in Norfolk, England learned their lesson last year, when farting turtles set off overflow alarms at another aquarium. The turtles get a Christmas treat of Brussels sprouts, which cause gas in turtles as they do in humans. When feeding sprouts to the turtles this year, the Norfolk aquarium lowered the water level to keep the expected bubbles from splashing water and setting off sensors.
Now the Yarmouth turtle tank -12 feet in depth and width holding 250,000 litres of water along with George the 3ft long green turtle – has been partially emptied for the festive season.
Thousands of litres have been removed to lower the water by a six inches and keep the sensitive alarms clear.
Displays Supervisor Christine Pitcher said: ”Last time an aquariist had to dash to the centre in the middle of the night, so we’re not going to take any chances.
”Sprouts are really healthy for green turtles.
”The high levels of calcium in them are great for their shells, the fibre is good for their digestion and they also contain lots of beneficial Vitamin C, sulphur and potassium.”
Link -via the Presurfer
(image credit: Flickr user pkingDesign)
While the horseshoe crab orgy is just a fun and cute animal affair, the turtles from Jamaica Bay are a different story. A group of 78 swinging diamondback terrapins held up one of the most busy runways at JFK on Wednesday. It took authorities half an hour to get the turtles off the runway.
He said that the turtles were perhaps attracted to the sand along one side of the runway, which juts into the water. “They tend to look for sand while they are mating,” he said. “Presumably, all these turtles were feeling amorous.” It is unclear whether the turtles pair off, or if the numbers indicated it was a group activity, he said.
Some of the delays lasted up to an hour and a half -but hey, at least the turtles got their sexy on, which is a much better excuse for a delayed flight than most of the ones we hear.
Link Via Consumerist
Sometimes a little critter just can’t catch a break. This poor little man keeps trying to eat a cherry tomato, which keeps sliding just out of reach. Thank goodness for the kind Samaritan that finally holds the food in place for him.
Link Via GiggleSugar
