Why Are Tortoises Slow? - Big Questions (Ep.6)

Hi, I'm Craig. I carry my home around with me everywhere I go, and this is Mental Floss on YouTube

Today I'm going to answer Justine is FTW's big question. Why can't land turtles run or move fast? What makes them incapable of moving at a fast pace

First of all, Justine, thanks for making the distinction between land turtles and sea turtles for us

Sea turtles are actually pretty fast. Leatherback turtles can reach speeds up to 22 miles per hour

Obviously that's while swimming. I don't think they can scoge across the beach that quickly

I can't. And when I try, I get sand up my buttocks. Anyway, land turtles are a whole different and much slower story

Let's get started. For the sake of this video, we're going to classify land turtles as tortoises

as amphibious turtles and sea turtles have different anatomy and tend to move a little faster

because ASOP wrote the tortoise and the hair and not the slightly less slow amphibious turtle and the hair and or rabbit

There are a few reasons why tortoises don't move very quickly. First, is that they just don't have to

They're herbivores, which means they live off of vegetation, which is not exactly a fast prey Tortoises are perfectly content to hang out in the field and lunch on grass They don have to chase after a gazelle or catch salmon out of the rapids so speed isn exactly essential

The tortoises shell also has a lot to do with why they don't move very quickly. That shell is pretty heavy to lug around. The shell is also the tortoises main protection from predators

so if something tries to attack them, they don't try to run away. They just curl up inside

their shell, and it protects them. It didn't protect me in high school. This seems like a fairly effective strategy because

no one wants to munch on what is mostly keratin, the same stuff your fingernails are are made out of. No one munches on fingernails. Moving slowly also protects tortoises from

injuring themselves. If you're not moving quickly, it's a lot less likely that you're gonna break a bone or cut yourself. I use that same excuse when someone asks me to go on a run

with them. But if I move quickly, I might hurt myself. Just kidding, no one asks me to go

on a run with them. So basically tortoises and turtles are slow because they don't have to be fast to eat. Their shell protects them from a lot of harm, and going fast means they

have a greater chance of getting hurt. I wish I was a turtle. Because I'm a lazy, lazy man

of your own that you'd like answered, leave it in the comments. Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube