The last few days we have been learning about various turtle species so I thought I would mix things up for today’s Wild Fact. Instead of an interesting turtle species we are going to study the Red-Footed Tortoise. Sometimes, you just have to mix things up, right? Isn’t variety the spice of life? What?!? You say the tortoise isn’t that different from a turtle?  Well, we will discuss all of the differences shortly but first, let’s take a closer look at the Red-Footed Tortoise.

This particular tortoise is native to South America but since they are so cool, they have been introduced to many Caribbean islands. Not sure if you have ever heard of the Red-Footed Tortoise?  Perhaps you know them by their other names including Savanna Tortoise, Jabuti and Morrocoy.  Now do you know which one we are talking about? Just to help jog your memory a little more, the Red-Footed Tortoise has red or orange scales which are visible on their feet, head and tail.  Makes me wonder why they didn’t call it the Red-Headed or Red-Tailed Tortoise.

So how is the tortoise different from the turtle?  Well, this isn’t that easy of a question to answer since different cultures have different meanings for the words.  For example, the nice folks of Australia only refer to Sea Turtles as “Turtles”, everything else is a “Tortoise”.  In North America, Turtles spend a majority of their life in water while Tortoises hang out on land and eat shrubs and other terrestrial vegetation.  Besides this habitat difference, turtles also have webbed feet for swimming (except marine turtles, which have flippers) while the Tortoise has short, stumpy feet perfect for walking.  Now do you see what I mean when I said we would break up the routine of all the turtle posts?

Red-Footed Tortoise – Apparently researchers have been using the Red-Footed Tortoise to help answer an age-old question.  Why is yawning contagious? This tortoise made the perfect study candidate since they don’t really mimic each other but will respond to things around them.  At the end of the day, the study showed that the Red-Footed Tortoise does not feel the need to yawn just because their neighbour did.  If you would like to read more about this study then please follow this link:  Contagious Yawning.

That just about does it for another day of crazy animal facts.  Perhaps tomorrow we will learn about an animal completely different from the Turtle and the Tortoise.  Enjoy the rest of your day and I will see you on Wednesday!