Title: The Private Life of Plants
Author(s): David Attenborough,
Release year: 1994
Publisher: BBC Books
Why in Database: The book version of the TV nature program that we already have in the database. Turtles appear in three fragments in this book:
The first mention is indirect, mentioning “small tortoiseshell butterfly”:
The caterpillars of small tortoiseshell and red admiral butterflies chew their way around the dangerous needles and the succulent leaves of nettles, so shunned by other bigger animals, are one of their favourite foods.
The second fragment is a reference to the story of The Tortoise and the Hare:
The young oaks grow slowly. The demands they make on the soil are less than those of the swift-growing birch. But each year they are bigger and stronger and eventually the time comes when they begin to rival the birches. In this long race, the tortoise is beginning to catch up with the hare.
Another mention is in the passage about “pebble plants”:
Outside the flowering season, the plant is very difficult to find among the gravel and pebbles, so its shape could also serve as a devence against detection by grazing animals – ostrichces and tortoises, porcupines and perhaps a few gerbils.
Author: XYuriTT
