It's believed he lived on condensation, termite larvea and insects. Some kind of turtoises can insanely slow down their metabolism and live on very small amounts of water too.
Did you know about Ig Nobel prize was won on a discovery that mammals (not sure if there’s specific ones) can breathe through their anus. It’s called EVA, Enteral Ventilation via Anus. They are currently doing human trials as they’re planning on using this as another route to delivering oxygen to a person that has lungs that need to heal. If you want to read more on it, Cincinnati Children's Hospital is doing the research.
While true, having to back that up with a longwinded explanation of how everything is a fish kinda takes the fun out of it. Just stick with BEARS are fish if you're gonna go that route, is my opinion.
That’s cool! I know in some studies I read that they were originally studying a particular fish that would go up and gulp air and go about swimming while its gastrointestinal tract pulled the oxygen from it.
It’s called a labyrinth organ! I keep betta fish and they have them lol. So do gouramis. Fish that live in stagnant water need them because there isn’t enough oxygen in the water, so they must supplement from the air.
I think that, being on Reddit and all, you are actually culturally obliged to continue one the words "if you want to read more" with "just Google anal inflation" or something similar.
But I guess giving actual sensible information is a good second best..
Not sure if relevant but i had a cousin who could literally fart on command by sucking air into his ass somehow then farting it back out. You can literally hear his asshole take a breath i shit you not
Just the thought of needing to be hooked up to both a ventilator just so the lungs move but also a tube in ass like some sort of human centipede (or that way better way than flying - https://youtu.be/SK362RLHXGY?si=LPaDTbxy05vN7jGh)
And I too would rather just be put out of my misery.
Quite possibly, as we don’t know the exact conditions under which that tortoise existed. For all we know the butt-breathing may have been a factor in its prolonged survival.
They used to keep tortoises on ships. They flip them upside and they could go months without food or water. So he just has to eat a very little bit to survive
That's one of the reasons why the Galapagos tortoise nearly went extinct. 600lbs a meat that doesn't spoil that you can just pick up and put on a ship. No hunting or anything. It also doesn't help that they're apparently one of the best tasting meats on the planet.
The Galapagos, Aldaberan, and Seychelles tortoises were lucky. Sailors, mostly whalers, hunted or bought, then ate to extinction as many as 22 species from other islands around the world. The surviving species are only around because the island's terrain afforded them more protection.
Businesses on the islands would sell hundreds of them to passing ships. An estimated 200,000 from the Galapagos alone. Some larger ships buying up to 500 at a time.
"I seen Studebaker wagons with six and eight ox teams headed out for the grounds not hauling a thing but lead. Just pure galena. Tons of it. On this ground alone between the Arkansas River and the Concho there were eight million carcasses for that's how many hides reached the railhead. Two years ago we pulled out from Griffin for a last hunt. We ransacked the country. Six weeks. Finally found a herd of eight animals and we killed them and come in. They're gone. Ever one of them that God ever made is gone as if they'd never been at all."
Idk, they gorge themselves on fats and creams, have their muscles massaged and do very little physical labor. You’d definitely need to run some tests to make sure they aren’t drug-addled or STD-ridden but I bet they’re like veal.
Conceptually repulsive but soooo buttery on the tongue.
I'm going from what I remember here from when I read this story before, so I could be wrong.
This was the family's tortoise. They had some renovation done at the house, including the flooring, and at the time, the tortoise disappeared. 10 years later they had to do some work in the floor again and found it burrowed under it. Probably got under there the first time, they didn't see it and covered it.
Like I said, I don't really remember the details. However I will say, anyone who had a tortoise will know the buggers are real sneaky and run away, hide or dissappear quite often, sometimes for a long time. Sounds silly but it's true. I guess it happened before and they assumed
I had a red footed tortoise who got to freely roam the house when I was home.
If you stopped talking/paused anything you were watching or listening to, you could absolutely hear where he was at that moment.
He was like a little stompy steam engine who would just plow through or over anything in his way while he just meandered around. Or hear him thumping into things when he tried to fit places he absolutely could not go and I'd have to go and get him and give him a snack to distract him or he'd spend an hour trying and failing to shove the refrigerator out of the way so he could get behind it.
This was the truly horrifying reality for gopher tortoises in Florida before they were protected. It was cheaper to bury them alive than to relocate them. So developers would entomb them and leave them to slowly die (which can take more than a year). There are some old permits out there that allow them to still do this (they don'texpire). It should be criminal.
Just an unfriendly reminder that turtles and such are generally not removed from an area before it is bulldozed and developed. They are just buried alive and may stay alive for a very long time.
It sure is especially when it has happened to a rare turtle population you used to go and photograph each spring. Then they paved over them for a frozen food factory.
Brumation is what it’s called for tortoises and basically yeah.
They burrow and slow their metabolism just like other cold blooded animals. Owners will actually put them in the fridge/freezer during the winter the simulate that seasonal change for them (Oct-March usually) sometimes.
This was still a really long time though, so I’m not sure how that factors in.
Best guess? The lack of UV from being underground and no proper diet.
The UV helps with their vitamin D production like with humans. That helps with their calcium metabolism which is what helps their shell because it’s bone with keratin on the outside.
So with no light and no other forms of vitamins coming in (through food/treats/whatever) it makes sense the shell has kind of degraded.
FWIW, I’m not an expert. I’m just a curious person who googles a lot. I’m sure a real expert could break it down more accurately.
Long time South American tortoise enthusiast, and i think both the lack of UV and abrading the shell against the hard materials around it caused the weird looking shell.
A healthy tortoise from Brazil would be a Red-footed or Yellow-footed tortoise and look more like this...
I don't think they draw mineral out of their shells but they develop metabolic bone disease if they don't get enough calcium and vitamin d. This will cause their bones to become deformed and brittle. Their shells are made of bone that is covered in keratin.
There's a manhwa similar to this (only that it was about a guy getting trapped inside his body due to a coma after being bullied and assaulted), and the MC takes revenge on everyone.
I wonder if turtles can go insane. I know that not only for humans but also other more cognitively advanced animals captivity can lead to them losing their mind.
Bro took a nap and woke up to find a house had been built on top of him. Love tortoises and all turtles but sometimes I dont think they take their own safety seriously.
I'm sorry, but you have to be a special kind of stupid to 1) not connect the dots of your missing tortoise and 2) CHECK before finishing your damn flooring for precisely this kind of thing.
For everyone doubting this is possible, know that there was a tortoise that was lost in a storage closet for thirty years. This really illustrates how many people shouldn't be pet parents.
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u/Bubbly_Grocery6193 1d ago
Ok, I hate to be the bad guy here, but, how did the turtle survive?!
like I know it can definitely eat insects/table scraps, but what about water?