TikTok is not able to capture on video a giant tortoise eating a meaty snack.
Giant tortoises can be over 700 pounds in weight and are large animals. They eat a lot of greens, mostly grasses and leaves. In fact, they can consume up to 11% of their home turf's vegetation.
Anna Zora is a conservation manager at Frgate Island, Seychelles Islands. She was watching birds in July 2020 when she spotted a tortoise following a tern chick and decided to record it.
In a video presentation, she stated that the tortoise wasn't just wandering around. This was what attracted her attention in an Aug. 23 video. It was just looking at this chick. We stopped recording and I thought that maybe something exciting was going to happen.
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Video: Giant tortoise hunting
You can watch the tortoise approach the bird in a YouTube video. It looks away at first, as if saying, "Nothing to See Here." As the tortoise approaches the bird, it turns its attention to it, possibly accepting its fate. The tortoise attacked the chick, and eventually ate it.
Justin Gerlach, director of biology studies at Peterhouse and affiliate researcher for the University's Museum of Biology, said that the giant tortoise chased down the tern chick on a log before finally killing it. Gerlach, who was co-authoring the research with Zora in Monday's statement about the findings, stated that it was a slow encounter. The tortoise moved at its normal slow walking pace.
Gerhach stated in Current Biology that Zora and her colleagues captured "a remarkable observation" because no tortoise was actively seeking prey.
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A female giant tortoise adult hunting and killing a smaller noddy tern chick.
Although all tortoises are vegetarians, some feed on bones, snail shells and dead animals. Others have seen tortoises eating or killing other animals. Gerlach stated that "this is the first video of this unusual event."
He said, "And it's impossible to determine if this was deliberate hunting or an animal taking advantage of a bit of extra protein." "What we report clearly indicates that this is hunting."
Tortoises are now able to 'hunt' in a new way
According to National Geographic, giant tortoises can live up to 150 years and reach 6 feet in height. The tortoises were widespread in prehistoric times. They even lived in the current southern and southeastern U.S.A and Caribbean. They are only now known to have survived in the Galapagos and Seychelles islands.
You may have been thinking about turtles lately due to the recent discovery of a two-headed sea tortu in North Carolina. While turtles and tortoises are both reptiles, they have their own differences. National Geographic states that tortoises are turtles that are able to live on the ground and not equipped for water (turtles feet are webbed).
The island is home to about 3,000 tortoises. It is managed as ecotourism. Gerlach stated that this "entirely different hunting behavior" was likely caused by the establishment of a colony of 265,000 noddyterns tree-nesting in trees. These birds often let their chicks fly from their nests.
"Frgate islands is a combination of giant tortoise and tree-nesting species. This is a rare combination, but we have observed that ecosystems can be restored to allow for unexpected interactions between species," Gerlach stated. Things that were probably common in the past, but which we have never seen before.
There is good news for other chicks living on the island. Tortoises can live up to one year without eating or drinking. They not only move slowly, but they also have a slow digestive system.
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This article first appeared on USA TODAY. Giant tortoise kills seabirds in horrifying video: Vegetarian no longer?
