Talk:Tortoise

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[edit] Hanako Koi, Oldest vertebrate?

The page cited to corroborate that the Oldest living vertebrate is a Koi called Hanako seems pretty iffy. It would seem that more rigorous citation is needed.

"All land tortoises are herbivorous."

Hang on, my land tortoise eats slugs. This site [1] has a diet for tortoises which includes "< 5% High-Protein Content Foods. Dry maintenance dog food, primate chow, pelleted parrot chows, tofu, various cereals (crisped rice, corn flakes, grape nuts, bran flakes, etc), sardines with bones, whole mice, baby mice, large carnivore diets, and scrambled or hard boiled eggs (with shells). Increase to 10% for hinged-back, angulate, brown and impressed tortoises."

Can someone who knows their tortoises please clarify. Fabiform 05:55, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Reptiles often eat differently in captivity than in the wild.--Piper Stone 08:21, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The article I just translated from German on the Marginated Tortoise indicates that young tortoises take a small amount of animal protein. By the way, it would be good if some biology-minded individual looked through that article, to make sure I got all the jargon terms correct. Thanks. Mpolo 07:07, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Images ??

Look, I like tortoises, too, and it's sad they're endangered, but do we really need nine images on this article? Makes it awfully slow to load for those of us still 56K. . . . . . Soundguy99 19:46, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

I've rearranged the pics in gallery format so that might make it quicker to load. However I don't think there are too many pics in this article because the trend now (certainly in the UK where I live) is for broadband to become the norm. Then we'll regret restricting the number of pics in an article (this is easy for me to say because I've got broadband!) - Adrian Pingstone 09:09, 16 May 2005 (UTC)
I'll agree there are far too many pictures here. Predicted UK averages or not, these images don't add anything to the article beyond decoration. One or two of these should be more than enough. I'll let someone else decide which to keep. CastorQuinn 09:45, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
Since this has been flagged since May and it doesn't seem to be contentious or attracting a great amount of debate, I've gone with the majority (2 to 1) and reduced the gallery by half.
I've removed the testudo marginata, testudo hermanni boettgeri and the testudo graeca ibera solo shots, since all three of those tortoises appear in the group shot with the testudo hermanni hermanni, and so it seemed uneccesary to have this additional three overlapping pictures - they add nothing that that one group shot doesn't. I also removed one of the two Aldabra Giant Tortoise photos, since again one is enough.
I'm happy to add any of these photos back if anyone feels there is any reason to. Eight photos in the gallery of a 600-word article, when most of these photos properly belong with the specific articles on the individual species they depict, seemed excessive.
The removed images (should someone wanrt to add them back in) are:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kr%C3%B6te_.jpg
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Testudooos_008.jpg-.jpg
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Riese5.jpg
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Neuler_002.jpg
CastorQuinn 04:14, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Heres another picture should anyone want to use on the page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tortoise_in_grass.JPG

[edit] Shielded by a magic shell?

Er, this sounds pretty stupid. Maybe someone should replace the word "magic" with something more accurate and scientific sounding.

[edit] Turtles and tortoises in popular culture

I created a new page where people can keep adding pop culture content, so that this page can focus on the biology. We have done the same at Frog, creating Frogs in popular culture. Hope everyone agrees that this is a good idea. Best, Samsara contrib talk 12:25, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proper Spelling of Robert Clive's tortoise ?

According to Reuters 1, Robert Clive's tortoise's name is spelled "Addwaitya;" according to the BBC [2], it's spelled Adwaitya. Can anyone confirm the proper spelling of the tortoise's name.

--Jvsett 17:46, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Are you going to edit the bit about Tui Malila in light of the information about Robert Clive's tortoise?

EvaXephon 02:16, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Needs a pretty big clean-up

The first part of the page before the contents needs to be cleaned and cleared up. First it says that Tui Malila is the oldest ever at 188 or 192. Then it says that another tortoise, Adwaitya, "was thought to be over 250". I know the former may be considered the oldest because the latter hasn't been scientificly tested or something, but it should be re-written to sound clearer.

[edit] Clarification on oldest Tortoise

It seems entirely contradictory to include both Tui Malila and Adwaitya as the oldest living Cheloniinae. However, claims that Adwaitya is now the oldest living Cheloniinae are entirely unverified having only just been mentioned in the press. If Adwaitya was indeed over 250 years old why wasn't he verified as the oldest 60 years ago when he would have been older than Tui Malila?

An example of a vauge reference in the press states:

"We have documents to prove that he was more than 150 years old, but we have pieced together other evidence, like statements from authentic sources and it seems he is more than 250 years old."

As of now Tui Malila is verified as the oldest living Cheloniinae by the Guiness Book Of Records and until this officially changes Tui Malila should remain the oldest. I will edit this accordingly. Kingofspades 10:49, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

That is exactly what I was getting at. Good work. DarkSideOfTheSpoon 00:19, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
Thanks. Its mad how some people jump straight in changing things without actually bothering to check if there true! Kingofspades 13:22, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
Dear Kingofspades - I disagree with you. According to a verifiable source, Adwaitya was the oldest turtle. This may or may not be true; in any event there appears to be significant disagreement about this fact. If you do not believe Reuters is a verifiable and reliable source, please feel to disregard this. However, as Wikipedia says on its own comments about Verifiability, not truth:
"Verifiability" in this context does not mean that editors are expected to verify whether, for example, the contents of a New York Times article are true. In fact, editors are strongly discouraged from conducting this kind of research, because original research may not be published in Wikipedia. Articles should contain only material that has been published by reliable sources, regardless of whether individual editors view that material as true or false. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, the threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth."
Based on the above threshold, a comment about Addwaitya as the oldest Tortoise is not only appropriate but to criticize others for adding it was simply wrong. --Jvsett 18:30, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
* First off this article is concerned with tortoises NOT turtles. Secondly as the article states - they have not presened scientific evidence to back up their claim. Whether its true or not, unitil this has been verified Addwaitya is not the oldest tortoise. I see absurd newspaper articles about all sorts of ridiculous things from alien abductions to reports of giant hamsters, each of which has been reported in respected newspapers, this doesn't however make them true. Kingofspades 13:08, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
It is interesting because I have seen articles about Addwaitya that claim he was the oldest and ones that say it cannot be determined. Who is to say which articles we believe and use? I think merely saying that "there is debate as to whether it was in actual fact the oldest living..." etc is sufficent. DarkSideOfTheSpoon 04:52, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Partial Species List

I did a clean up on this a little while ago, to make it more consistent, and more readable. I used an conservation status template that has since been obsoleted. I've had a look at the new conservation status markup and I don't understand it well enough to apply it. I'm going to hunt around for an article which employs it, so I can use it as a model. If anyone knows of any good examples, let me know. In the interim, it would be great if anyone who knows it could markup the partial species list here for the new scheme.

I have not verified any of the status attributions; in my tidy up all I did was format and clean, not verify.

It's also unclear from the page why this is only a partial list, what the criteria are for inclusion in the list, and what would be required for this to be designated a full species list. CastorQuinn 03:52, 27 November 2006 (UTC)


[edit] tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell (however tortoises, unlike animals without shells, have a shell).

that sounds strange... i'm assuming this is some sort of vandalism. 14:17, 24 February 2007 (UTC) fix 208.103.184.115 14:18, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tortoises and Box Turtles

According to this graphic accessed from the page about terrapins, "box turtle" is the US word for a tortoise. Should the two pages be merged? Wavehunter 21:08, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Turtles and tortoises in popular culture

Think that you should add a link to Turtles and tortoises in popular culture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_and_tortoises_in_popular_culture —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.242.55.93 (talk) 12:02, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removing section about carrier bags

Im going to remove the following as it doesnt really make sense. Tried to find a source for it but no joy. If anyone can find a source please put it back in because i'd like it to be true but suspect it isnt

Use in carrier bag production

Tortoise droppings have recently been used by EcoWorld Ltd in the development of ecologically friendly carrier bags; the chemical makeup of Tortoise feces shares the 1-4 hydrogen bond which is critical to the strength and durability of plastic, and by super heating it is possible to create a strong carrier which leaves virtually no carbon footprint, and will decompose within two months of being buried..[citation needed] —Preceding unsigned comment added by Timmywimmy (talk • contribs) 20:08, 13 April 2008 (UTC)