Science

Giant tortoises can perform tasks and will remember their training almost a decade later


Turtle recall: Giant tortoises of the Galapagos and Seychelles islands can be trained to perform tasks and will remember their training almost a DECADE later, scientists claim

  • Giant tortoises have been shown to demonstrate amazing memory recall skills
  • Scientists taught the notoriously ‘slow’ creatures to bite sticks to gain food
  • The tortoises were able to recall their skill almost 10 years later  

Giant tortoises from the Pacific and Indian islands may be a lot cleverer than humans have previously given them credit for, according to the results of a new study.

Despite a slow and lumbering reputation in the animal kingdom, tortoises from the Galapagos and Seychelles islands demonstrate remarkable memory skills over time.

Observations of the creatures show they are not only capable of being taught new tasks, but can remember their training nearly a decade later.

Tortoises in Zurich and Vienna zoos were taught to bite a coloured stick to receive food, and recall the skill after nearly nine years

Tortoises in Zurich and Vienna zoos were taught to bite a coloured stick to receive food, and recall the skill after nearly nine years

Around nine years ago, scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan taught a group of captive tortoises in Vienna and Zurich zoos to bite the end of a particular coloured stick in return for food.

At the time, the tortoises were trained to bite the correct stick to receive the food when they were presented with two different coloured options.

After nearly a decade, the team returned to the enclosure that housed three of the tortoises and found that they were able to recall their skill from a decade prior.

The animals were shown to perform tasks better when surrounded by their fellow creates than when taught individually

The animals were shown to perform tasks better when surrounded by their fellow creates than when taught individually

‘Until recently, reptiles were often regarded as reflex machines, incapable of more complex behaviours, reduced to a footnote in the evolution of learning and intelligence,’ the researchers wrote in their study, which was published in the journal Animal Cognition.

The creatures were also found to learn faster when trained in a group rather than individually, even though each tortoise was assigned its own colour for the learning task.

Galapagos tortoises can live for over 100 years, making it one of the longest-living vertebrates.

Despite being described as ‘living rocks’ by early researchers, all tortoises in the new study learned to perform the task of biting a rubber target for a reward

 Despite being described as ‘living rocks’ by early researchers, all tortoises in the new study learned to perform the task of biting a rubber target for a reward

Early visitors to the Galapagos, including Charles Darwin in the early 19th century, used tortoises as a source of food during the arduous journey across the Pacific Ocean.

The HMS Beagle took more than 30 live tortoises as an easy to store and long-lasting source of food for the voyage to Polynesia. 

Darwin wrote in his diary: ‘Young Tortoises make capital soup – otherwise the meat is but, to my taste, indifferent food.’

Darwin also observed that Galapagos tortoises in their natural habitats are capable of traveling considerable distances from sleeping areas to feeding grounds and water sources, an early indication of their intelligence. 

Conversely, William Dampier, a 17th-century British pirate, said they were ‘extraordinary large and fat, and so sweet, that no pullet eats more pleasantly’. 

This new study represent a first step towards a wider appreciation of the cognitive abilities of the giant tortoise and less for their meat.



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