Hey guys, so today I'm going to talk a little bit about our tortoises and their
shells. There is, there are some people that believe that tortoises can't feel it
when you like touch their shell or scratch their shell, but today we're gonna kind of
debunk that myth, so. We're gonna show you and tell you why they can feel it
when you scratch their shells in today's video. Okay, so I'm going to show you a
picture of the skeleton of a tortoise right here and from there you can see
how closely the spine, the backbone of the tortoise is in
relation to its shell. It's right across the top, it's not like through it or
anything in the middle, it is really closely integrated there. And the shell is
actually kind of like, it surrounds the backbone. The part you see here this is
keratin that grows over the bone of the shell, under that keratin is the actual,
is actually a bony shell itself and this is just the keratin. And then you can see
all these growth rings, that just appears as they grow. But in this, in the
shell is a whole bunch of nerve endings, so whenever you scratch their shell or
pet them they can feel every touch and every scratch you give them. So yeah,
way back when, in the old times or whatever, they would actually drill holes
in the shell and they didn't realize that that would hurt these guys. So yeah,
but now we know better and so they don't do that anymore hopefully.
But, uh, but yeah these guys you can tell they can feel everything. Oh, do you like
a scratch? Oh, you like the scratch. Oh, she likes it.
Oh, she likes it today. Oh, yes. Say, if they couldn't feel that she wouldn't be
reacting to it, for sure. Okay, now we're gonna show you these guys, they react a
lot more to getting scratched by the shell. Okay, I know the male, he likes to
dance. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. She's like I feel it, I feel it. It's looks like our female who's really
active. She can feel that. Oh, she's starting to lean into it. Uh-oh.
Such a good girl. Now she's gonna get a drink too.
Oh, she stepped on me. Oh my goodness. She is really active today. Oh yes. Oh, we
love the scratches. Oh yes. Definitely tell they, she likes it. Yeah, in one of
our previous videos, I think it was a flashback to this, when we did the Salute
to Scott, you can actually see him when he was younger, and you can see him
dancing to being scratched on the, on the shell, so. He really throws his weight
around when that happens. Yeah. So yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed this little video
all about the tortoise's shell and how they can feel everything, and a little bit
about how it grows and all that, and kind of the structure of it. We'll uh, we'll see you
guys later, and she's gonna climb all over me. Yes she is.