Dippy's Shell

by Miroslava Jurcik

Title

Dippy's Shell

Artist

Miroslava Jurcik

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

There are two types of Galápagos tortoises. The largest, with big, round shells, are called “domes.” The smaller kinds of tortoises have shells that curl up in front like a saddle and are called “saddlebacks.”
Dippy, tortoise from Australian reptile park, has dome shell. He also has a deformity which he was born with, probably luck of calcium .
Their shells are not solid. Instead, they are made up of honeycomb structures that enclose small air chambers. This makes it possible for the tortoise to carry the weight of the shell without much difficulty. The shell encompasses the animal’s ribs, so a tortoise cannot "walk out" of its shell, like you may see in cartoons. The lungs are located on the top of the tortoise’s body, under the top dome of the shell.
When threatened, the tortoise pulls itself into its shell with a hiss. The hissing sound is just the tortoise letting air out of its lungs. If a fight breaks out among males, the tortoises face each other with ferocious glares, open their mouth, and stretch their head as high as they can. Whoever reaches the highest wins, even if he is much smaller overall than the other male! The loser pulls his head in with a noisy hiss, and the battle is over. To us, this looks like they’re just putting on a show; but it’s a serious matter to the tortoises, especially in the wild, where fights occur over mates or a specific food item or clump of food.

Uploaded

January 31st, 2018

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