Hey, I'm Justin, and I am super excited that you are joining me again for
Tell Me About. And today, we're talking about turtles. I think turtles are super
interesting animals. So let's explore why they're so cool and what makes a turtle,
a turtle. Now first things first, there's more than one kind of turtle.
There's more than two kinds of turtles. More than three or four, or well, well why don't I show you?
You've got your box turtle, snapping turtle, loggerhead turtle, green sea turtle,
hawksbill, Olive's Ridley, Kemp's Ridley, flat back, leather back,
big headed turtle, spotted turtle, blandlings, european pond turtle, bogwood, spotted box turtle,
map turtle, diamond back terrapin, red bellied, cooter, pond Slider, northern river terrapin,
painted terrapin, brown roofed turtle, asian leaf turtle, spidey turtle, and tortoise.
Oh, I gotta breathe. I gotta breathe, whew. Did you know that there are over 300 different
kinds of turtles in the world? So you could see that I'd be here a while if I said all of them.
Turtles are reptiles, and reptiles are cold-blooded. That means they can't regulate
their body temperature without a little help. So to warm up, they need to stand in the sun,
and to cool off, they've got to get out of the sun and into the water or shade.
These turtles are out sunning themselves, soaking up the rays. This one's all like, oh,
oh it's too hot. I gotta, oh, that's nice. Oh, and this one over here is gonna stretch a little bit
to get more sun. But oh, oh, oh, oh, your legs are in my face, oh. One of the main cool things
about turtles is that they have this thing on their back. What's it called? That's right! A
shell. Here's what this turtle shell looks like, and here's this one, and here's this one too.
Now let me ask you guys a question. Who here likes to watch cartoons? Raise your hand if you do. I
know I do. Now I remember seeing some old cartoons where a turtle got so scared that he jumped
out of his shell and ran away. It was really funny, but it's impossible. Well, why is that?
Well, it's because a turtle's shell is basically its ribs and backbone. Only instead of being on
the inside of their body like ours are, it's on the outside. Why don't you take your hands for
a second and feel your rib cage? It's right about here, and then take a hand and feel
your backbone or your spine. Now could you jump out of your body and leave your bones behind?
No, of course not. At least, gosh, I hope not. So turtles always have their shell on,
like how we always have our bones on. Now just because they can't jump out of the shell,
doesn't mean they can't do cool things with it. Here's something that some turtles are able to do.
They can tuck their head and their limbs inside their shell like this. This helps the turtle stay
safe. Let's say that you're a big animal and you want to take a bite out of this tortoise, right?
So all of a sudden, you just have this big hard shell in front of you that looks pretty
tough to crack, and you can't really take a bite out of it. Doesn't look too appetizing,
right? Some turtles, like painted turtles and sliders, live near the water, like lakes,
rivers, and ponds. Like all turtles, they need to breathe air though. So when they're not swimming,
they'll crawl on up to the logs and rocks on the shore and sunbathe, like we learned earlier.
They mostly eat plants, but sometimes they'll eat insects and small fish. During the cold winter
months, they'll dig deep into the muddy bottom of the water and snooze, or hibernate, until the
warm weather comes. Some turtles, like this box turtle, live on the forest floor. That's where
they'll find their delicious meals of berries and insects, roots, flowers, and other plants.
During winter, they too will find a nice cozy place to sleep, or hibernate, until spring.
Some turtles spend their whole lives underwater. These are sea turtles. A sea turtle is built
for life in the ocean. Their long flippers act like paddles that push them through the water,
and they could dive very deep to get to their favorite food, jellyfish. Now like other turtles,
sea turtles need to breathe air, but they can hold their breath for a really long time.
An adult sea turtle can hold its breath for up to 45 minutes under water. That's a really long time.
But if the water is really cold, and a sea turtle's body slows down, a large sea turtle
can hold its breath for up to seven hours. That's like watching 40 of these videos. Imagine sitting
down and watching 40 of these videos with me in them, and holding your breath the whole time.
Please don't do that. I mean, of course, you couldn't do that and you wouldn't do that, but a
sea turtle could. All turtles lay eggs. Female sea turtles come out of the water to lay their eggs on
the beach, and when the eggs hatch, they have to hurry and scurry back into the ocean waters.
Hey, you want to know what the biggest turtle in the world is?
Here it is. The leatherback sea turtle. Here you can see it next to a person. Wow, that's big.
Here's an interesting thing about the leatherback sea turtle. It's called that because its
shell isn't hard like other turtles. So it's more like a soft, rubbery leather.
What's that sound? It's joke time!
Okay, okay, okay. I got a really good one. I got a really good one. It's about turtles. Okay.
What did the teenage turtle use to call his mom? His shell phone!
I crack myself up. Oh my gosh. I shouldn't have done that. That's my mic. Now finally,
this is a tortoise. Tortoises are a kind of turtle too, only tortoises only live on land.
No, they can't be bothered with oceans or rivers or any of that.
So you have your small tortoises, and your medium tortoises, and then you have your giant tortoise.
Look at this guy. That's a giant tortoise, and look, this is a giant tortoise's foot,
and this is a giant tortoise's face. Hey, you got a little something there. Giant tortoises
can live a really long time, too. They can live to be well over 100 years old. Thanks so much
for exploring turtles with me today. I hope you had as much fun as I did, and I hope you know
so much more about these amazing reptiles. I'll see you next time on our Tell Me About series,
where we explore our beautiful, natural world, and until then remember to always be clever.