We don't want to ruin cute herbivores for you, but it turns out the Aldabra giant tortoise knows how to hunt. (From 2021)
cute herbivores for you, but it turns out the Aldabra giant tortoise knows how to hunt.
Herbivores don’t get much more herbivorous than tortoises—sluggish, methodical animals whose evolutionary strategy is to use as little energy as possible and rely on their shells for protection. That’s opposed to an animal like a deer, which can leg it away from predators. But at the risk of ruining deer for you, too, they also scavenge for meat.
In the case of the giant tortoise, its hunting behavior seems to be a collision of ecological quirks. Terns nest in trees on Frégate Island, which is both tropical and heavily forested. But the ground is home to its other predators, like lizards and crabs. That means the forest floor is lava for any chick that is not yet able to fly away from danger. The bird’s instincts tell it to perch on a tree—at all costs.
But is a tortoise’s digestive system even equipped to handle meat? “No one has looked at that at all,” says Gerlach. “They don't eat meat—why would you bother looking?”
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