# Thermoregulating temperatures in tortoises



## tortadise (May 22, 2014)

I mentioned to a member a few weeks ago that Russian tortoises were not a thermoregulating species of tortoises. Tom had questioned which ones were. I don't remember which thread it was in. Anyways. I told Tom I would post an article on psammobates about thermoregulating in extreme heat conditions. Most of the South African tortoise species can utilize the controlled heat within there body somehow. I can't post the article as it's a thesis and 378 some odd pages. But I will attach a few links to some good chart data on speckled cape tortoise, leopard tortoises too. Good stuff.

Pardalis pardalis in Karoo cape(very hot landscape)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306456513000181

Homopus signatus typically cape and Namaqualand(very hot landscapes)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196312000766

And this one is a good read for heating and cooling in reptiles.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306456598000461

These are the sort versions. The PDF files which I purchased are copyrighted. So can't post the entire articles.

And now a picture of a 3 toed sloth I helped back in a tree last year in Costa Rica, just because.


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## ascott (May 22, 2014)

Sloths are a fav here in our household...fantastic pic


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## tortadise (May 23, 2014)

T


ascott said:


> Sloths are a fav here in our household...fantastic pic


they are a fantastic animal. So docile. Just super gentle right out of the wild.


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## Neal (May 23, 2014)

Exciting information. The abstract indicates that they used different behavioral mechanisms in the summer and winter. I'm sure I can guess as much, but I was just curious if the article describes the different behavioral mechanisms observed or recorded?


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## N2TORTS (May 25, 2014)

I got your back on that one Kelly......


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## ascott (May 25, 2014)

that is a fricken hilarious pic JD.....wonder how that eventually worked out....lol


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## naturalman91 (May 25, 2014)

N2TORTS said:


> I got your back on that one Kelly......



looks like Gene Simmon's in sloth form......


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## FLINTUS (May 25, 2014)

Kelly, you went to Ostional didn't you while you were in CR? How did you get there? We're going this August, but apparently the road is washed out pretty much during rainy season, and with river crossings. We'd be coming from the Tamarindo area?


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## tortadise (May 27, 2014)

Flintus yes I've been there a few times. The past times I go to playa tortuga. Much further south about 6 hours from ostinal. It's about and hour south of tamarindo. Road always wash out during rainy season. But still venturable. Almost everything is 4x4 down there. I can look up a biologist to get in touch with there if you'd like. When are you going?


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## tortadise (May 27, 2014)

I don't believe these did. I can get the thesis paper and sift through it seeing if it does state such. However this thesis is on psammobates and just referes to comparison of species near I within the range of p.oculifera, some of kalahari tents overlap with pardalis but not as much as the Namaqualand tent p.tentorius.verexii. I will look into it further Neal. Good quandaries.


Neal said:


> Exciting information. The abstract indicates that they used different behavioral mechanisms in the summer and winter. I'm sure I can guess as much, but I was just curious if the article describes the different behavioral mechanisms observed or recorded?


nt bi


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## FLINTUS (May 27, 2014)

tortadise said:


> Flintus yes I've been there a few times. The past times I go to playa tortuga. Much further south about 6 hours from ostinal. It's about and hour south of tamarindo. Road always wash out during rainy season. But still venturable. Almost everything is 4x4 down there. I can look up a biologist to get in touch with there if you'd like. When are you going?


We're going late August. Just looked at the map, and playa tortuga is a LONG way away. We would still like to get down to Ostional, but the if the roads avoid river-crossings-apparently they now have bridges, but no confirmation-, then it's a no go. We'll have a rental RAV 4


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## tortadise (May 28, 2014)

Nah you will be good. Ostional is right off a major road (160) I'm waiting here back from my biologist in play tortuga (marina ballena preserve) on the ostional information. You can also visit a turtle preserve on playa grande north of tamarindo about 20 minutes. When I was there in march we found some Black Sea turtles, and a green baby that hatched out. Don't have the baby pic though. I don't have the playa grande peoples info either. They are foreigners, which are much more harsh and not welcoming of tourist(even if they want to help).


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## FLINTUS (May 28, 2014)

Looks good, we'll have a go and see what happens-if you see a rav4 by the side of the road on your next visit, you'll know what's happened lol... Playa Grande would be good but no nesting there in August.


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## tortadise (May 28, 2014)

Haha. Oh they're will be some nesting there. I'd guarantee it. Maybe very little leatherback action, but you'd see some.


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## FLINTUS (May 28, 2014)

We'll have a go at that then first before going to Ostional. Thanks for your help.


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## tortadise (May 28, 2014)

Hopefully your going in early august too. Unless you like the rain. Ha. I love going down there during rainy season it's awesome. If you get a chance take a puddle jumper to Manuel Antonio. Super awesome nation park with a mass variety of climates and animals.


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