Lmst

Happy #WorldTurtleDay! :HappyTurtle: Yay! ❤️

Did you know that all tortoises are in fact turtles — they belong to the order Testudines or Chelonia (reptiles having bodies encased in a bony shell) — but not all #turtles are #tortoises.

One way to tell them apart is by where it lives. A #turtle lives mostly in #water, while a #tortoise is a #land animal.

Some people use the terms interchangeably but technically that's not always correct.

#IlaLoetscher #Environment #Conservation #IAmDB

It's a cutaway photo of an unknown species of tortoise that clearly shows that turtles aren't "in" their shells — they ARE their shells.

The specimen is large and stark, sitting on a white table in a white room, perhaps a museum. It's been vertically bisected, front to back. Along the top of the animal, you can't really see the scutes that make up the beautiful shell we normally see. It's just a thin brown veneer over the white domed skeleton, the carapace. Hanging from nder that, the backbone looks like scaffolding. At two points, one in front and one at the back of the animal, are "arm" and "leg" bones attached to the dome on one end and have feet on the other, hinged at the "elbow" and "knee" just above the boney underside of the animal, called the plastron. The tortoise walked on its toes, differentiating it from turtles, which walk on the bottom of their webbed feet. Between the "shoulder blades" there's a long boney neck that looks like heavy duty chain links, in this photo at least. At the end of the neck, the head is egg-shaped. Its mouth is closed and we can see one large eye socket.

Below the specimen, a sign says:

"Reptiles in a box
"A tortoise’s shell is made of two bony parts - the plastron on the underside and the carapace on the upperside. Large horny scales, called scutes, cover the bones of the shell. The middle part of the backbone is fused to the shell, leaving the bones of the neck and tail free."

It's a photo of environmental activist, conservationist, and world famous turtle hugger Ila Loetscher (https://w.wiki/EGX7), AKA The Turtle Lady, standing on a beach, with waves and a blue sky behind her, holding a costumed sea turtle in her arms, like one would a baby. She appears to be rubbing noses with the animal. She's got gray, wind-blown hair and is wearing a red and black sweater. The turtle, wearing a knitted red and white striped sweater and a festive matching hat, has one flipper on the woman's shoulder. The photo is signed in the upper left and says "Love from the Turtles and Ila".

A person stands in a large but shallow indoor pool of water that comes up to about his knees. Behind him is a small blue bucket filled with water, sitting on the pool floor. The man, wearing shorts and a dark t-shirt, is bending over with his right arm in the water — which has hundreds of very small baby turtles swimming in it. They're all just floating around and so sweet looking! They're tiny and cute and they're all around him! ❤ The caption says "I would never leave this job."

Saturday 18 May 1963

TV stars come and go. There are exceptions, of course, like Eamonn Andrews who seems to go on forever, David Jacobs who popped up on both channels recently, and Peter Dimmock who is now a BBC executive. For most though fame is fleeting. The life of a TV star may be gay and prosperous, but it is also very short.

#SocialHistory #History #Television #Nature #Boxing #Football #Tortoises #1960s

First and most important (and a week late), #HappyNewYear #AndyTheTortoise who came out of brumation a week ago today. He’d started it at the end of October. Was too busy to make announcement.

In the last 3 years, I always prolong his brumation artificially (with nightly coolings) till May 1, for optimal heat. This year, however, I extended by an additional week due to poor weather and my lack of readiness… So he was in brumation 6 months and 1 week! Likely his longest, because even in Northern California he normally woke up mid-April!

But he is up now, and doing very well.
Happy 104th year, Andy!!! You rock! I'm so happy to have you!!

The cutting board contains his typical meal at the beginning of the season: From bottom to top: Lettuce (here, red leaf), chopped up roma tomatoes on a leaf of lettuce, and above on chopped dendelion on the left and chopped broccoli florets on the right. I also plant an assortment of plants which I will show in a different toot.

#GopherusAgassizii #CaliforniaDesertTortoise #EndangeredSpecies #Reptiles #Tortoises

The image shows a tortoise on a patch of dirt ground, with a green cutting board placed nearby. The tortoise is positioned on the left side of the image, near a concrete retaining wall oand some bulbous plants. The cutting board, located on the right side, contains from bottom to top: red leaf lettuce, chopped, roma tomatoes chopped on a leaf of lettuce, and just above, chopped dendelion on the left and chopped broccoli florets on the right. The ground is dry with scattered leaves and small rocks, and there are shadows cast by the plants, indicating a sunny day. A person's foot is visible in the bottom left corner, suggesting someone is present. The overall scene appears is outdoors in a mediterranean-climate garden.

Provided by @altbot, generated privately and locally using Ovis2-8B

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Went to the local water supply reservoir a couple of days ago, and did a bit of #Photography. We've had a lot of rain lately; the water level was up by a couple of feet, and the spillway was overflowing. There's one particular location which for some combination of factors, is always teeming with #Tortoises. They sit just under the surface, and watch you with just the tips of their noses poking out of the water. Lots of little triangles, like tiny shark fins.

An aquatic tortoise sitting just below the surface of the water, its back half lost in the gloom of the tannin-stained water.

A photo of a reservoir in the late afternoon. The view points down towards the water, the tree-lined horizon is near the top of frame. Waterbirds can be seen amongst the lillypads in the midground. In the foreground, many small triangles can be seen poking out of the water, the snouts of tortoises watching us from under the water.

Here's what happens when you bring a population of indigenous large animals back to levels the ecosystem evolved for. Apparently, tortoises engineer their environment to be healthier for all species.

#nature #Tortoises #rewilding

https://bbc.com/future/article/20240220-the-giant-tortoises-boosting-biodiversity-in-the-galpagos