Tortoises are certainly slow-moving animals, as anyone who has seen one ambling around can attest.
But are they always slow? Are they capable of moving quickly or do they simply have little reason to do so? And if they can move quickly, how fast can they run?
I’ll be answering these questions and additionally, talk about the gait pattern of tortoises below.
Can Tortoises Run?
Technically speaking, no – tortoises cannot run at all. To understand why, it is important to examine the definition of the term “running.”
Running is typically defined as a gait pattern that includes a phase in which all the animal’s legs are held off the ground. For example, when you walk, one of your legs is always on the ground. But if you speed up and start running, there becomes a point at which your right and left leg are both off the ground.
Four-legged gait patterns are twice as complex as two-legged gait patterns, so scientists recognize a few different types of movement that may fall under the “running” umbrella.
For example, the term “gallop” is applied to animals who exhibit a phase in which all four legs are off the ground, while the term “canter” refers to a three-beat pattern, in which one leg is always in contact with the ground.
But tortoises are incapable of cantering or galloping. Instead, they exhibit a gait pattern referred to as a lateral sequence diagonal couplet. Simply put, they first move one of their front legs, then they move the diagonally situated rear leg, then the other front leg, and then the final rear leg.
This means that tortoises always have two legs on the ground, which means they can “amble” or “walk,” but they cannot run.
How Fast Do They Move?
Technical definitions aside, tortoises can sometimes move more quickly than most people would think. Many sources estimate various tortoise species achieving walking speeds in the ¼ to ½ mile per hour range.
Specific instances in which tortoise speed was accurately measured are rare. But in one case, a male Seychelles tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea hololissa) was clocked walking nearly 0.24 miles per hour when traveling in pursuit of a female individual.
However, a leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis) named Bertie holds the Guinness World Record for tortoise speed. He was clocked moving at nearly 0.63 miles per hour.
Nevertheless, tortoises are clearly slow creatures. By comparison, humans typically walk at speeds of between 2 and 4 miles per hour, and the fastest humans run at speeds exceeding 25 miles per hour.
Interestingly, aquatic turtles can often move faster on land than land-dwelling tortoises can. River cooters (Pseudemys concinna), for example, have been recorded traveling more than 1 mile per hour across dry ground.
Characteristics That Make Tortoises Slow
Several factors play into the slow walking speed of tortoises, but a few of the most notable include:
- Tortoise shells are extremely heavy, relative to the size of their bodies. Tortoise shells are primarily comprised of bone, which is obviously heavy. That means that in some cases, a tortoise’s shell can represent more than 30% of the animal’s total weight. This would be like a 180-pound human trying to run while carrying a 60-pound backpack.
- The hips and shoulders of tortoises are effectively inside the rib cage. Tortoises are obviously built very differently than most other animals. And one of the interesting things is that their ribs (which have evolved into their shells) are situated outside the hips and shoulders. This limits the range of motion of all four limbs, thereby making it harder for tortoises to move them quickly.
- Tortoises primarily subsist on plant material. Many animals have evolved the ability to move quickly because they must capture fast-moving prey. But because tortoises primarily feed on vegetation, which obviously doesn’t require great speed to capture, tortoises don’t need to be able to move quickly.
- Tortoises usually don’t flee predators. Another reason many animals develop the ability to run quickly is that they need to be able to escape from predators. But tortoises don’t typically flee when threatened. Instead, they simply stay put and rely on their thick shells for protection.
Does Temperature Affect Walking Speed?
As occurs in most other ectothermic (“cold-blooded”) animals, the speed at which all biological processes in tortoises occur is influenced by the environmental temperature. And this includes their walking speed.
In other words, when the temperatures are relatively cool, tortoises move more slowly than normal. Conversely, when the temperatures are high, they are able to move around more quickly than usual. The difference in walking speed is generally quite subtle, but it is important enough that tortoises usually avoid being active when temperatures are very low.
Citations
- Journal of Experimental Biology – Giant Galapagos tortoises walk without inverted pendulum mechanical-energy exchange
- Guiness World Records – Fastest Tortoise
- The Journal of Nutrition – Chemical Composition of Turtles and Tortoises
