A study has revealed the strange behavior of turtles when they are in the moonlight

Did you know that turtles “bath in the sun” at night? Yes, strange as it may seem, this statement is true. The study demonstrating this was published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation.

On-duty researchers have used soundings and camera traps to monitor whether freshwater turtles emerge at night to sit for hours in the moonlight. The result was affirmative. Instead of blankets, deck chairs and hammocks use logs or stones to “moon”.

The study was conducted on tortoises from North America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Seychelles and Australia after it was discovered that the natives of Townsville, a city in the latter country, did so . The conclusion came after analyzing more than 873,000 photos of more than 10 different species.

Until now it was believed that turtles wreak havoc during the day at they regulate their body temperature or dry out their shells and reduce harmful parasitesbut now they are also known to do something similar at night with the light of the equatorial moon at intervals of between two minutes and 11 hours.

“They would get up at night and sit on the logs showing behavior very similar to what they do during the day; when we investigated it, it wasn’t something turtles were supposed to be doing,” Donald McKnight, a postdoctoral researcher at La Trobe University and co-author of the study, said in a news release.

Another of the conclusions reached by the research is that the nocturnal tanning of freshwater turtles It has to do with ambient temperature..

In the study, they say more information is needed to better understand why animals moonbathe and how the animals’ individual personalities, sex and other factors might contribute.

dad at 90

In late March, Mr. Pickles, an endangered tortoise, became a father for the first time at the age of 90 at the Houston Zoo, Texas, USA, local media reported.

The specimen is now the father of three baby turtles, Dill (Dill), gherkin (a type of pickle) e jalapeno.

The puppies are distinguished by the color of their shells: Jalapeño’s is darker, Dill’s is lighter, and Gherkin’s has a white dot in the center.

Mr. Pickles’ paternity at 90 is good news for his species, the Madagascar star tortoise, threatened by poaching for illegal sale and for the few offspring it usually has. In China, you can pay the equivalent of $50 to have one of these turtles eat it.

The three children of Mr. Pickles, who has been at the Houston Zoo for 36 years, are the result of his union with his partner, Mrs. Pickles, 53, who arrived at the conservation center in 1996.