High Temperatures and Tortoises

https://youtu.be/jesNk13WUKs

There is a lot of concern (and misinformation) about how tortoises handle potentially dangerous high temperatures in the wild. No-one comes to hose them down or soak them! It can be weeks and even months between rains. So how do they really do it? By the careful and clever use of behaviours designed not only to gain heat when required (basking) but also by other behaviours that are highly effective at losing heat when necessary. This can involve shallow scrapes, as used by Mediterranean Testudo species, but also by the use of burrows as see in Centrochelys sulcata (African Spurred tortoise) from sub-saharan Africa or by Testudo horsfieldii from Central Asia. Both burrows and scrapes are highly effective at regulating critical core temperatures and they also play a major role in reducing vital body fluid loss via respiration or transpiration via the skin. Essentials to survival in these incredibly harsh environments