Act Like a Scientist, Think Like a Turtle

Alli Hough Author

03/04/2016 Added

65 Plays

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Second Place in the Undergraduate category of the 2016 School of Natural Resources Elevator Speech Contest. Alli is a senior majoring in Fisheries and Wildlife (Conservation Ecology)

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[00:00:00.834]Growing up, my summers were spent at
[00:00:02.635]my family's cabin by the lake.
[00:00:04.248]There weren't a lot of other kids around,
[00:00:06.095]so my favorite pastime was turtle catching.
[00:00:10.053]There was one spot on the lake where I knew
[00:00:11.991]that the turtles loved to lay up in the sun on a fallen log
[00:00:14.673]and I became so good at catching them that I could fill
[00:00:17.772]the whole paddle boat up to go home and show my mom.
[00:00:21.070]And at the end of the day we would release the turtles
[00:00:22.834]at the end of our dock.
[00:00:24.807]Every day I did this, and every day the log was once again
[00:00:29.045]full of turtles.
[00:00:30.949]This got me thinking, if I release the turtles off the end
[00:00:34.431]of our dock, how do they know how to find their way home?
[00:00:38.565]Now my research focuses on the cognitive abilities
[00:00:41.570]of aquatic turtles.
[00:00:43.163]Specifically, what cues do they use to find
[00:00:45.889]their way from one place to another.
[00:00:49.535]Until recently, turtles were thought to be unintelligent
[00:00:52.682]compared to other animals because they performed
[00:00:54.503]poorly in past cognitive studies.
[00:00:57.093]The problem with those studies is that they were
[00:00:59.577]performed under conditions that might be ideal
[00:01:01.318]for a mouse, or a cat, but not conducive to reptiles.
[00:01:05.441]In some recent studies, tortoises have shown the
[00:01:07.692]ability to strategize, and to learn simple tasks
[00:01:11.140]by watching other tortoises.
[00:01:13.137]This is fairly advanced thinking that was once thought
[00:01:15.355]impossible by reptiles.
[00:01:18.280]In my research I've taken aspects of these tortoise studies
[00:01:20.833]and applied them to aquatic turtles.
[00:01:25.012]My first two trials used mazes.
[00:01:27.334]The problem with the maze system was that
[00:01:29.611]the turtles are more interested in exploring their
[00:01:32.153]new environment than with finding the food at
[00:01:34.579]the end of the maze.
[00:01:36.216]This problem forced me to reevaluate and I realized
[00:01:39.258]that if I wanted to study a turtle I needed to think
[00:01:42.019]like a turtle.
[00:01:43.552]So for my current trials I'm using a grid system
[00:01:46.152]set up on the bottom of each turtle's tank
[00:01:48.753]and I feed them in the same location on the grid every time.
[00:01:51.969]Now once they've learned where to find their food,
[00:01:55.150]I will begin changing the cues within their environment
[00:01:58.412]such as rocks and plants and I'll determine whether or not
[00:02:01.894]this affects their ability to find their food.
[00:02:04.994]So far this system has been much more successful
[00:02:06.955]because the trials are taking place in the turtle's
[00:02:09.708]normal environment.
[00:02:11.670]Although I'm using snapping turtles for my study,
[00:02:15.094]the goal is that this research can be applied to
[00:02:17.032]the conservation of endangered species such as the
[00:02:19.193]critically endangered Blanding's turtle
[00:02:21.014]that lives right here in Nebraska.
[00:02:23.674]Knowing how turtles learn and think is important to help
[00:02:27.515]conservationists design conservation corridors that
[00:02:30.546]connect fragmented habitat, and know what these animals
[00:02:33.251]need to navigate this new space.
[00:02:36.896]It's also very important to me so that some day
[00:02:39.647]when my children fill the paddle boat up with turtles,
[00:02:42.028]and want to know how they'll find their way home,
[00:02:44.267]this time I'll have the answer.
[00:02:46.624]Thank you.
[00:02:47.448](applause)

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Act Like a Scientist, Think Like a Turtle

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