Hingebacks "drilling" for water

[Kristina]

This is a neat little behavior that I have witnessed many times before (whenever it rains or I use the sprinkler) that really shows just how adaptable these critters really are.

(Sorry for the poor quality pics, had to take these from my phone as my camera was dead )

What I mean by drilling for water is this - First, they make an impression in the ground with their heads. They stick their heads in as far as to completely cover their ears. Then, they prop their rear ends up as high as their long, skinny stilt legs will go, letting the front of their carapace rest on the ground. The water hits their carapace, and runs down towards their heads, where the big scoop like scutes along the front of the carapace funnel the water towards their heads and the hole in the ground. When the depression fills up with water, they drink it. Pretty cool, huh?

The little one decided that the water dish was easier, lol.

They have constant access to water (in fact in the near future there will be a small pond in the same spot where they were "drilling") but this seems to be an instinctive behavior triggered by the falling water. I just think it is really neat.

 

[Redstrike]

Awesome!

When I was working with desert tortoises, they could usually sense coming rain via drops in barometric pressure. They'd come out of their burrows and start digging holes to collect the rain water. It blew my mind!

 

[shelledfriends]

That is pretty neat, thanks for sharing. Are those Erosas or Homeanas?

Michael

 

[wellington]

Very interesting. Must be really cool to watch

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Almost forgot. With all those tortoises, how do you let your camera die. Shame on you

 

[Kristina]

That is pretty neat, thanks for sharing. Are those Erosas or Homeanas?

Michael

Homeana. All of my tortoise are listed in my signature

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With all those tortoises, how do you let your camera die. Shame on you

Yeah yeah yeah Camera has a bad battery, actually. It dies just sitting there.

 

[Weldd]

Pyxis tortoises do the same thing. In fact, I see a lot of overlap with Pyxis and
Hingebacks...

 

[theresal]

That is really cool and I did not realize that they exhibited such behavior. I just recently got 2 Bells Hingebacks. I guess when we build their outdoor pen we might get to see this behavior. I can't wait. I love to find out cool things that the torts do Thanks for posting!!