Other Turtle Discussion :: How intelligent are turtles?

[razorblade42069]

Can they distinguish between different people?

[Tenodera]

Yes, I think they can distinguish different people. Not as well as we do, since they're turtles. If you had an identical twin and you both wore the same clothing, you turtle would either get confused or extremely excited that two people are going to feed him/her. I'm not too sure on this. My turtle begs whenever she sees something moving, whether it be me, my mom, my dog, or a electric fan.

I think they don't COMPLETELY rely on instinct, they must have SOME degree of thinking...
My turtle had a long think about whether she should eat the java fern I threw in for her a few minutes ago. After around 2 minutes of staring at it, she started chomping on it. Now all thats left are the roots and stalks. I though you guys said turtles don't like eating java ferns!:lol:

[pumpkinsherbet]

i think it's more a scent than sight thing when it comes to recognising people. energy maybe. notice that when most animals greet you, they tend to stop and smell you first. when i first got my turtles i handled them a lot (didn't know better) and whenever i'd hand them to my boyfriend they had a tendency to bury their noses in his palm or shirt, like they were sniffing him. i think voice recognition goes in there as well.

anything sentient has a way of recognising the things around them. scent is the most common. i think it's got something to do with anatomy; the nose is literally the only organ that has a direct link to the brain (which is why a scent will trigger a memory faster than any other sense).

[Spookster]

I think ours is the smartest dumb turtle or maybe the dumbest smart turtle. Not sure which. She shows she has intelligence most of the time but when one of us walks past when she is sitting on the ramp and she gets spooked and jumps off and swims full speed across the tank and rams head first into the side of the tank...I just don't know what to think.

[SpotsMama]

I'm sure my turtle recognizes me. I'm the only one that ever feeds him. I don't know that he thinks of me as a person but he knows that I'm the one with the good food. He gets real excited when I go to the tank and he doesn't react the same way to other people. I think RES are pretty smart reptiles. Not only can they destinguish one person from another but they make very good eye contact and are very responsive to a person. They are excellent escape artists too. Just lately I've seen Spot up on his basking platform looking upward very intently. Sometimes he reaches in the air with his front paws and sometimes he stands on the platform and checks the edge of the tank. He's trying to figure out if there's a way out! When I put Spot on the ground outside he always wanders around for a little bit then heads for the back door and goes inside. (our back door is a glass sliding door and there's only a very small step up to get into the house.) He does it every time. I believe he has a sense of direction and recognizes places as well as people.

[pumpkinsherbet]

conditioning every sentient being is capable. my turtles are the same way; they see of as food lady because they always get fed by me. they've come to expect their first meal of the day shortly after the lights come on, and thus they wait by the front of the tank for me to get there. they also tend to go to opposite does of the tank cuz they know i put the food in like that. ------your turtle makes the beeline in that manner as a flight response. they move to hide quickly and they get their speeds up high, too high for the space. it's like stepping on the gas to get away from the person chasing after you; you don't tend to calculate things, you just react.

[DavidY]

Turtles have very good eyesight, especially aquatic turtles. They can easily see a threat half way across the pond like 20 or 30 yards away (probably further). I don't know about their sense of smell though. At least for all snakes and many lizards, they taste the air with their tongues in order to detect scents. Other lizards without the forked tongues will go up and lick you (or anything else they are curious about) to get your taste. I would think turtles rely mostly on their keen sense of vision, than anything else, but i'm not positive about that.

I definitely believe that turtles do posess a higher level of thinking ability than many other reptiles. Especially when you spend time interacting with them outside their tank, like on the floor or in the yard. You can really see them think things through, like decision making. I wonder if it's because of their limited ability to escape danger in a swift manner. Like some reptiles that are extremely fast (certain lizards and snakes), they don't need to think much when they're in danger. Their instinct tells them to run, they run. Doesn't matter which direction, they just zip away and they're gone. So they really don't need to think that much. But turtles can't zip off like that, so they need to really think things through to decide what is the best route of escape if there is any, or to just tuck everything in and hope the threat goes away. Of course if they're next to water, they can zip off pretty quickly once they're submerged.

[SpotsMama]

I was at a reptile show last weekend and there were lots of bearded dragons along with various snakes and lizards. The dragons seemed alert. They would look at me. Most of the other lizards and snakes didn't seem to be aware that I was there. I thought the dragons seemed rather intelligent. I don't know whether they would be as interactive as our RESs but there was something there. I've been around iguanas from time to time and they never seem to know I'm there. You'd think they would be similar to the dragons since they are also pretty big lizards. Maybe the iguanas I was around were just too cold!

When Spot is out of his tank he looks around and makes decisions about which way to go. Sometimes he starts off in one direction then changes his mind, backs up, and goes a different way. He's very interesting! And entertaining!

[Rocky YBS]

i think they do know who you are. e.g (owner....stranger).
when my bro......well he isnt a stranger but my turts dont think much of him.....when my bro holds my turts, they go in thier shell or try to get away.
but listen to this, when my turts are in my hands, my female sometimes is a bit sensative and a bit shy but she is more comfortable with me than anyone else and my male is scared of everone else and if you touched his mouth, he would bite you straight away, but when i put my finger on his mouth or stroke his neck(gently) he doesnt even flinch. they loves me ever so much.
now that is interresting. (or so i think).
he even lets me tiggle the bottom of his chin (he loves it so much)

[Starchick]

I can definitely tell you that there's a level of intelligence there. I see the difference between my two boys. Napoleon is happy to explore my apartment, and loves climbing things. He sits and considers obstacles, and figures out the best way to get over them, then sits at the top and thinks about how he'll get down. I have some pictures from last week when he was out and decided to climb my quilting supplies. He hoisted himself up on top of a box filled with tape and rulers, then stepped from there onto the slope of the quilt, and hauled himself up. This was a bed-sized quilt, folded on top of a roll of fabric and batting, which was on top of a pillow, so the pile was a good foot high at least. From the top of the quilt, he found a place that sloped down gently so that he could just slide down, make a little jump onto the pillow, and walk off. I was totally amazed. Napoleon shows a lot of thought in some of the things he does. Hercules though, seems to act more out of instinct. When we let him out, he pretty much looks for cover. He goes around things rather than over them, and frequently gets stuck behind doors because he's trying to go towards the light he sees near the hinge, but doesn't think to turn around. He does recognize Michael though.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Yes, Sheba recognizes me. The only reason I know is that I did an experiment where my mom stood on one end of the room & I was on the other. We put Sheba in the middle & both called her to come to us. She looked at both of us & at first was confused, but then ultimately picked me & ran over to me.

Also, Sheba has preferences about who takes care of her too. One time when I was on vacation with my parents (this was a long time ago), we had our neighbor lady (friend of ourse) come in to feed her. Whenever the lady came to feed her, Sheba retreated to the *bottom* of the tank & would try to bite the lady (she told us about it when we got back). Sheba flat-out did NOT like this person for some reason so we never asked her to care for Sheba again.

When my parents comes to visit, Sheba just *LOVES* my dad & will run to him right away & beg for food just like she will do with me. It's very cute. Not sure what it is about him, but she is crazy about him.

[Rocky YBS]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw you have one smart turt lol.
isnt it great how much turtles realy do understand?

[gameragirl]

I think our turts get smarter as they get older. I know mine recognizes me from other members of the family. (I spoil her rotten).

[industrial_girl_2000]

I think our turts get smarter as they get older. I know mine recognizes me from other members of the family. (I spoil her rotten).

Agreed!!!!

[DavidY]

Hey SpotsMama, I agree with you completely about the Bearded Dragons. They are by far the most dog-like of all reptiles in my opinion. My dragons all watch me whenever I come near their cages, and often times will come right to the door when I open it up. My big dragons are in the bottom enclosures of my big multi-cage wall unit so I have to kneel down on the floor to open their sliding door. A lot of times when I do this, at least one of the dragons will come to greet me and sometimes jump right in my lap and give me a "what's up?" lick (that's how they check things out is with their tongue, much like dog's sniff each other's butts). They eagerly eat out of my hands and will climb onto my shoulders and sit there while I walk around doing stuff. I've even brought them with me to the bank or on errands occasionally when the weather's nice (one at a time). They are definitely very much on the same level of intelligence as the RES are, but are more agile making them easier to interact with (they will climb up my shirt or arm to get on my shoulder whereas the turtles rely totally on me to pick them up to be at head level).
The turtle's personality is much more intriguing to me though. They are more interesting to watch as you can almost see them thinking about things. Almost like the difference between a cat and a dog.