How many Tortoises facts do you know?

It's great to read an amazing article about animal facts like this. Keep reading to know a list of Tortoises facts

1. A TORTOISE IS A TURTLE, BUT A TURTLE ISN'T A TORTOISE.

A turtle is any shelled reptile belonging to the order Chelonii. The term "tortoise" is more specific, referring to terrestrial turtles. (Of course, there's always an exception. In this case, the land-dwelling box turtle.) Tortoises are usually herbivorous and can't swim.

One easy way to tell 'em apart: look at their feet and shells. Water turtles have flippers or webbed feet with long claws, and their shells are flatter and more streamlined. Tortoises have stubby, elephant-like feet and heavier, domed shells.

2. A GROUP OF TORTOISES IS CALLED A CREEP.

But you won't see a creep very often. (Not that kind, anyway.) Tortoises are solitary roamers. Some mother tortoises are protective of their nests, but they don't care for their young after they hatch.

3. TORTOISES INSPIRED THE ANCIENT ROMAN MILITARY.

During seiges, soldiers would get in testudo formation, named after the Latin word for tortoise. The men formed rows and held shields in front or above them to completely shelter the unit.

4. "TESTUDINAL" MEANS "PERTAINING TO OR RESEMBLING A TORTOISE OR TORTOISE SHELL."

5. TORTOISES HAVE AN EXOSKELETON AND AN ENDOSKELETON.

The shell has three main parts: the top carapace, the bottom plastron, and the bridge that fuses these pieces together. You can't see them, but every tortoise has ribs, a collar bone, and a spine inside its shell.

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6. THE SCALES ON THE CARAPACE ARE CALLED SCUTES.

Made of the same keratin found in fingernails and hooves, scutes protect the bony plates of the shell from injury and infection. The growth rings around scutes can be counted to determine the approximate age of wild tortoises.

7. THE LIGHTER THE SHELL, THE WARMER THE ORIGIN.

Tortoises from hot places tend to have lighter-colored shells than tortoises from cooler areas. The light tan sulcata originates from the southern part of the Sahara Desert.

8. THEY CAN'T SWIM, BUT TORTOISES CAN HOLD THEIR BREATH FOR A LONG TIME.

They're extremely tolerant of carbon dioxide. It's a good thing—tortoises have to empty their lungs before they can go into their shells. You'll often hear them exhale when they're startled and decide to hide.

9. AND YES, THEIR SHELLS ARE SENSITIVE TO TOUCH.

Shells have nerve endings, so tortoises can feel every rub, pet, or scratch ... and sometimes they love it. Note: This delightful creature is a turtle, not a tortoise.

10. SULCATAS ARE ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR PET TORTOISES—AND ONE OF THE BIGGEST.

Get ready to move to the suburbs and amend your will. Sulcatas are the third largest tortoise species in the world, behind the Galapagos and Aldabra giant tortoise. They can live more than 100 years and weigh up to 200 pounds.

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What noise do giraffes make?

It's great to read an amazing article like this. Keep reading to know what noise do giraffe, giraffe baby make

University of Vienna researchers now say they've determined that giraffes do indeed "produce vocalizations" that may serve as a means of communication.

The researchers recorded animals at three European zoos, amassing 947 hours of recordings over eight years. They then analyzed the recordings visually, in a process they describe in BMC Research Notesas "time consuming, tedious, and very challenging." They believed the animals might produce "infrasonic vocalizations" — that is, below the level of human perception—and were looking for such low-frequency sounds.

And they did indeed find "structurally interesting humming vocalizations" that occurred mainly at night and hovered around 92 hertz in frequency; as one New Scientist commenter notes, they sound a little like the Kraken (listen for yourself here). The hum isn't infrasound, but it's not exactly easy to hear either; Wired notes the researchers shared the vocalizations with zookeepers, and the sound was unfamiliar to them.

Though the researchers couldn't prove the sound is used for communication, they found "suggestive hints" that the hum might serves as a "contact call, for example, to re-establish contact with herd mates." They speculate the hums may be occurring at night because giraffes' typically keen vision is less effective then. "Future studies should test in a well established experimental setting whether giraffes are more vocal when visual communication cues are absent," they conclude. (Giraffes are silently disappearing.)

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