by Matthew Cobb
This video is fascinating. As the title indicates (apologies for sweary word – nothing to do with me), most people seem to be focusing on the cat, which is more interested in something off-camera than it is in the turtle. That just seems like typical cat behaviour to me. What’s much more interesting is – what is the turtle trying to do? Why does it apparently want to clamber onto the cat and follow it about? Here are some options:
• The turtle was imprinted on the cat when it hatched and thinks its a parent (unlikely as no parental behaviour in turtles)
• The cat smells good (of what?)
• The turtle is trying to do that thing where turtles climb on top of each other to get closer to a source of warmth (what source?).
• They are (excuse my anthropomorphism)… friends (why? Are turtles even friends with each other?)
As someone who has studied animal behaviour for over 35 years (gulp), I am perplexed. Answers please!
I was wondering what the turtle was up to as well. It seems to be trying to get to the cat’s mouth, so maybe the cat just ate a bunch of cat food and smells like it and the turtle is trying to get his share of the noms.
That would be my guess too.
Exactly what I was going to say. Maybe the cat just ate some fish, or shrimp, or squid?
Agree. Had a turtle that loved aromatic cat food over his dry pellets.
Fifthed! Occurred to me right away. Turtle seems particularly interested in cat’s mouth.
Me too. My dad had a turtle for about 20 years – no kidding, that thing refused to die.
It would come to the surface if you held food above the water. They definitely have a sense of smell.
It’s trying to get at food.
Feed the turtle! It’s hungry!!!
Unrequited love!
Griff, does your favorite color happen to be yellow?
The turtle seems to be doing to the cat what my cat often does to me, i.e. stick her nose in my face and try to chomp on my whiskers.
So apparently, actual cat’s whiskers are, as far as turtles are concerned, the (figurative) cat’s whiskers.
Agree. It’s after the whiskers. If it was simply food smell, I don’t think it would be so aggressive from a distance away. I think the cat’s whiskers look like some sort of irresistible larval form, worm, something.
As we’re on the topic of cats, and attraction, I discovered something about my sister’s cat years and years after it had been in the family:
One day while laying on the rug, I breathed in-and-out very rapidly out of my mouth, lips pursed as if I were attempting to whistle…kind of a low-frequency whooshing, very rapid.
The cat got quite upset, and ran over and batted at my mouth. I got off the carpet, repeated the sound while sitting in a chair, and the cat jumped up on my lap and again batted at my mouth. I stopped, and waited until the cat was leaving the room. I repeated the noise, and he ran back in very fast, jumped on my lap, and again raised his paw to bat.
This cat, “Petey” was a very clever and bold cat. He sometimes chased dogs, drank spilled beer, and licked up ice cream. A bit unusual..
…anyone receive a similar “batting”??
It would be a mistake to think that individuals of any species do not have ‘personalities’. For a start, what is a personality but a series of layers of different traits that probably have a survival or reproductive value. Take timidity or boldness – both will have value in different situations. Perhaps the turtle IS exhibiting a ‘personality’. Spiders can have them according to the latest research
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1767/20131407
But I think it is attracted buy the warmth…
Mutations that lead to the evolution of new psychological traits have to occur somewhere. Perhaps this turtle has some mutation that renders it unusually social with its neighbors.
In the wild, that might get it eaten fairly quickly, but it might ensure unusually good treatment by it’s human landlords in return for the affection.
Probably won’t be passing on the genes, but that doesn’t matter to this one little guy in the here and now.
THIS IS THE ORIGINAL upload by ButterflysBone from 2007
S/he has eight cat/turtle videos HERE for those who want to speculate further on the behaviour. S/he says the cat & turtle are both male & I assume it’s the same turtle in all eight vids.
It looks like the turtle is trying to nom cat’s whiskers. Probably they resemble food (worms? algae?).
I’d say the turtle is simply doing what its chemistry is making it do – after all it has no free will.
The turtle appears to be a Reeve’s turtle which is omnivorous. When the turtle touches its nose to the cat it is smelling to determine if there is something there it can eat. As you know, a cat’s mouth often smells of cat food, so the turtle probably thinks there is a potential meal. Pet turtles can be very persistent beggars.
The mysterious ways would suggest that this may be some form of deity.
I watched this, the cat became a bit aggravated with the turtle and walked away.
How about the turtle likes climbing? Too obvious?
Reblogged this on Mark Solock Blog.
Obviously the turtle is down to f@#$
I think I figured it out. But it’s not so nice.
The toxo has finally gotten the best of the turtles brain, cementing suicidal behaviors (repeatedly approaching cat with neck waaay out). Methinks the toxo is working hard to try to turn the turtle into cat poop.
I agree the turtle looks to be a male Reeves’ (Mauremys reevesii), but a pretty small one.
He appears to be trying to get face-to-face with the cat as part of either an aggressive or courtship behavior, which are usually very similar. In this and related species the initiator sways his or her neck back and forth while extending and retracting it, placing its head alongside the other’s and alternating sides with each sway. You can see it briefly in the above clip, mistakenly directed at the cat’s foot, but also done face-to-face in another video by the same person:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFIYsho49g
Turtles are not very picky about cross-species interaction. There are many YouTube videos of tortoises ramming themselves into cats (try “tortoise attacking cat”), which is once again both an aggressive and a courtship behavior.
Sorry, didn’t mean to imbed the video.
Now that you mention it, that’s reminiscent even of our Russian Tortoise male’s mating behavior. Lots of neck action, including rapid up and down movement; and lots of butting/biting at the female’s mouth.
” . . . not very picky about cross-species interaction…”
A couple of times we’ve actually found our Russian trying to mate with a rock in his enclosure. We figured it was a bit like the female–hard, roundish, room temperature…
😀
That made me giggle. Thanks, I needed that.
Have an internet on me.
😀
I thought mating at first but it didn’t look as feverish – I had a tortoise for about 40 years and it would mate with anything – especially shoes but it vocalized and was much more earnest than this turtle. I vote for the food idea.
LOL! You are so freaking funny. Hell, if I had known that all I had to do was be hard, roundish (well, I got that part down), and room temp, I wouldn’t have had to wait til I was nearly 40 to start a family lol.
Well, if you wanted to mate with a turtle/tortoise you would’ve been set. I suspect however that you were more picky about who you were going to mix your genes with. 🙂
I really suggest that before dismissing the intelligence,feelings of the turtle, people should look at the story of Owen, an orphaned hippopotamus, and Mzee, a 130-year-old giant Aldabran tortoise. Google the names or ‘baby hippo and tortoise’ and you will find the remarkable story as well as videos.
I don’t know how strong a turtle’s sense of smell is. My best guess is that the turtle thought the whiskers could possibly be food. It really was only going after the whiskers except for the brief moment where it was curious about the black toe pads sticking out between the fur. I haven’t looked it up, but I’m betting this turtle is omnivorous – being part insectivore. The whiskers look wispy and wingish/leggish if you compare that to say, a dragonhawk (those long legged winged insects that come out in summer and seem to lose all their legs in random areas of your home before dying in the middle of the floor or something). Turtles can be curious and quite interactive, but I just haven’t observed them enough to say that any of their behavior much resembles the emotional complexity of birds and mammals. But if there were some type of emotional scale for reptiles, then I would say that turtles are probably near the top of the scale.