Title: The Trials of Life
Author(s): David Attenborough
Release year: 1990
Publisher: Collins
Why in Database:In this book (which is a supplement to the TV series that we have in the database) we found three turtles pieces.
The first fragment is about burrow turtles and the importance of their burrows for local animals:
Reptiles also make tunnels. The gopher tortoise that lives in the southwestern deserts of the United States needs one as a shelter in which to escape the worst of the mid-day heat and it digs into the sun-baked ground with slow ponderous sweeps of its armoured fore-legs. These tortoise holes are often so long — up to forty feet — that judging from the tortoise’s slow rate of excavation they must have been made by several generations and are probably several centuries old.
Small mammals too are great diggers. Kangaroo rats and spring-hares use their holes, as the tortoise does, to shelter from the heat; hyaenas and wolves as nurseries; badgers and armadillos as dormitories in which to slumber during the day after foraging at night; and mice and rabbits as sanctuaries where they are beyond the reach of most of their enemies.
The second excerpt is also about burrow turtles, and the fact that not all animals that exploit their burrows show gratitude:
The tunnels dug by American gopher tortoises are also commandeered by squatters. Snakes slither in to cool off in their shade when the sun gets too hot. Burrowing owls, rather than burrowing for themselves, move in too, sitting in a proprietorial way beside the entrance and glaring in outrage when the rightful owner lumbers in.
The last fragment is about the symbiosis in which the Galapagos turtles live with the Finches:
In the Galapagos, finches attend to giant tortoises. They alight in front of one of them and hop up and down in an exaggerated fashion. If the tortoise feels the need to be cleaned, it signals its acceptance by craning its neck upwards and stiffening its legs so that its huge shell is lifted clear from the ground. In this position, all the more intimate parts of its skin where something unpleasant and irritating may have lodged are as fully exposed as they can be. Immediately, the finch flies on to the tortoise, inspecting its neck and climbing up its thighs while the tortoise stands quite motionless with that air of frozen patience adopted by a man having his hair cut.
Author: XYuriTT
