Questions:
Do turtles live in groups? How do they communicate among themselves?
- Asked by Angela Khor
Answers:
Turtles basking
Turtles are mostly solitary creatures, so not much is known about how they communicate with each other. However, most are territorial and aggressive if with others. They prefer to have their space. However, they do seem to use some form of communication during the breeding season. For example, some species will travel together to the breeding ground to mate. Additionally, some turtles will use a variety of methods to try and attract a mate, including head-bobbing, biting the female’s legs, or use different leg movements while facing the female.
Some turtle species can detect an enemy by sensing the vibrations in water. They also have excellent sight and sense of smell.
This post is part of Turtle Blogathon 2009, where we stayed up for 24-straight-hours to blog about turtles. Posts written during the Turtle Blogathon are filed in the Turtle Blogathon 2009 category.
ooh..just like d one in finding nemo. do they really travel via the ‘east australian current’?
and i was wondering if they make any kind of noise/sound underwater…
It would be interesthing to throw my hydrophone next to a turtle for a week to see if we can get any form of temporal patterning for any souds produced by the turtles.
If yes, then we have some thing very intresthing.. might have a chat session using turtle language in the future.
would love to test out my hydrophone for this cause.. hehe
that’s what i was thinking of as well!
am wondering how do turtles know that it’s the season for them to breed? what’s their calendar look like though =p
Since turtles can sense vibrations in water, it is highly likely be able to “hear” / pickup sounds around it. for sound = a form of travelling wave.
There could be a range of sounds that the turtle will likely be able to pick up. They could be able to use ultrasounds or infrasounds as a form of communication. Outside our human hearing capabilities.
Something worth looking into.