Niko Shefer is an academic who is currently teaching English literature at the collegiate level in South Africa. In addition to being an academic, he is also an environmentalist who believes in protecting the Earth, as well as animals that call it home. He is regularly involved in tortoise rehabilitation, and knows a great deal of interesting facts about the reptile. One interesting fact is that the tortoise inspired the ancient Roman military. Their shells and their ability to hide safely within a mobile structure gave the Roman military their strategy for advancing in an open plane. The soldiers on the front line hold their shields directly in front, but each soldier behind them holds their shields above their heads. This creates an overlap that makes unit impenetrable to arrows called Testudo Formation, from the Latin word for tortoise. Another interesting fact is that a group of tortoises is called a creep. Although it is rare to see a group, or creep, in the wild, they can sometimes occur naturally. Most tortoises are solitary travelers, and even after they hatch, their mothers leave them to fend for themselves from day one.
Perhaps one of the most unknown facts about tortoises is that they have both an exoskeleton and an endoskeleton. Their shells are considered part of the skeleton, and a tortoise can’t live without it. They also have ribs, a collar bone and a spine all inside the shell itself. Niko Shefer enjoys working with tortoises, and doing his part to make sure the reptile is around for many years to come. Comments are closed.
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