The film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has topped box offices for two weeks in a row, despite poor reviews. It’s no surprise, of course, that the film is wildly scientifically inaccurate—it is about human-sized mutant turtles, of course. But in one important way, the science flies: Turtles really “talk.”
Sure, they can’t speak English (so far as we
know), but real-life turtles communicate underwater with low-pitched
calls that they use to help them travel together and to find mates, says
Richard Vogt, a researcher at National Institute of Amazonian Research
in Manaus, Brazil.
Much of Vogt’s work focuses on Giant South American river turtles, which
migrate from beaches into dense, flooded forests. “You're watching a
sand beach in the Amazon, and in a manner of minutes, 200 turtles all
come out at the same time and start sunning. How do they decide to do
it?” By talking to each other, he says.- READ MORE AND LISTEN TO RECORDINGS
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