Abstract:

Do turtles hear? Many zoologists postulate that hearing has no effect on the behavior of freshwater turtles; however, electrophysiological data have proven that their brains do respond to sound. Very few behavioral studies have been conducted and most have had inconclusive results.
In the previously successful “Myrtle Project” scientists studied the hearing capabilities of a green sea turtle through behavioral methods. Using operant conditioning techniques the turtle was taught to come to a station and touch a response paddle to indicate signal detection and to touch a light box in the absence of an audible tone. The resulting data can be used to help assess the impacts of anthropogenic sound on sea turtles; all of which are threatened or endangered.

In my individual study I attempted to replicate the “Myrtle Project” on a smaller scale using three red-eared slider turtles (Chrysmeys elegans). Training sessions were held at the same time each day on an average of five times per week, and ranged from twenty minutes to two and half hours. Some methods employed to expedite training were isolation, group training sessions and feeding out of the water.

I was successful in training the turtles to respond to a recall tone by touching a response paddle with their beaks. Feeding, the basis for the training, proved to be the most challenging part of the experiment; however, once a relationship was established, training progressed smoothly. The results were as follows: The yellow female took thirteen sessions to recall and station/target; the pink female responded to recall and station after fifteen sessions; and the blue male never responded to recall and station.

Conclusions: While this experiment did not reach its goal of developing a behavioral audiogram of the red-eared slider, it does give us insight on the trainability of turtles.