What If Tortoises Are The Most Evolved Reptile?

Beasty_Artemis

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What if red foot tortoises are the most evanced reptile species? They seem super smart to me.
 

EricW

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Work with a water monitor, Ackie, tegu, King cobra, any Drymarchon species, and then get back to me...
Always thought about getting ackie's. Only thing that has deterred me is the thought of how much they may eat with their activity level. Ordering gobs of crickets, roaches, etc. is what I envision. Is that about right?

Along the same lines, back in the day I kept quite a few colubrid and favor quite a few. However, they eat, thus poop, so much more than constrictors so I tend to stay more on the constrictor side of things. Less mice and less clean up.
 

Beasty_Artemis

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I went to order a jar of mealworms (the smallest one) but my mom wanted to order the wholesale jar and insisted on it! I couldn't believe it myself!!!!
 

jsheffield

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I feel that among my various torts, my Russians are the most intelligent, then my Redfoot & MEPs.

I don't feel as though any of them are within an order of magnitude of either of my dogs, though.


Jamie
 
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pacific chelonians

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I’ve worked with may tortoises and I think that intelligence is on an individual basis, for example I have 10 cherry heads and the smallest one is the one who escapes every week. Although she is the smallest she climbs over the 18inch wall with a 3 inch lip once a week some how. And I will admit some species are much smarter then others. I feel that mountain tortoises are the smartest species I have kept. They are quite primitive in regards to there evolution with the nest guarding and building skills. They have incredible vocal communication and social dynamics. they remind me much of monitors lizards.
 

pacific chelonians

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I think this may be a case of what you said about individuals... I think that I live with some pretty crafty Russians, and that my MEPs and Redfoot are coasting, enjoying the good life.

Jamie
Haha well when I see my mees 2 foot up in a bush watching me they seem so smart
 
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Tom

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Always thought about getting ackie's. Only thing that has deterred me is the thought of how much they may eat with their activity level. Ordering gobs of crickets, roaches, etc. is what I envision. Is that about right?

Along the same lines, back in the day I kept quite a few colubrid and favor quite a few. However, they eat, thus poop, so much more than constrictors so I tend to stay more on the constrictor side of things. Less mice and less clean up.
Honestly yes. They eat quite a lot, but I have three roach colonies so it was never an issue for me. I would just pull a bin down and feed them a bunch. They don't eat any more than any other similarly sized lizard though.

I don't find my Drymarchon to be any more messy than any python or boa I've ever kept. I know people say that all the time, but I have yet to experience it. I have two adult unicolor cribos, and while I feed them more often than a python, I also feed them smaller meals, and don't find any more poop than any other snake.
 

TammyJ

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As to tortoise or other reptile "intelligence", I wonder with what instrument we humans have decided to try to measure it. We see a particular action following a particular prompt, and assign a score based on what we have decided is the most smart response? And if they don't respond as we expect, they are dumb?
 

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