Tortoise Behaviour in Rain

Some of the fascinating strategies wild tortoises use when experiencing very heavy rain in their natural habitats. The substrate, while very dry for most of the year, is often muddy and saturated in rain, and the tortoises partly bury down in it... but how do they breathe?

Tortoises do have a high tolerance of anoxia (lack of oxygen) but super-saturated mud is very little different, in effect, than being fully submerged under water. So, they have evolved some techniques to deal with that...

It is also worth noting that in flash floods we have often found tortoises that have been washed considerable distances down gullies and ramblas (normally dry river beds) and have survived in seemingly perfect condition! Now... tortoises can and do, sadly, sometimes drown. Every year we get reports of captive tortoises that have died after falling into garden ponds on swimming pools, for example. So do not underestmate the dangers.

That said, in nature, they seem to cope remarkably well even in quite extreme conditions.