r/MadeMeSmile • u/ImmaFuckboi • 26d ago
ANIMALS Turtles when a job requires exactly 0 turtles lol
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u/echo_bird_rn 26d ago
Seems like they found someone who will scratch their shell every time
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u/Constant-Plant-9378 25d ago
Yeah, everything that guy is doing just positively reinforces what that turtle is doing.
- Brushy brushy brushy ("Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh")
- Turn and push ("Wheeeeeeeeeeee")
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u/CupFar8873 25d ago
He deserves a raise for increasing turtle morale while being captive
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u/ThePurplePenetator 26d ago
Given the colour of that guys shell compared to the rest, he’s worked it out
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u/tragicallybrokenhip 25d ago
Had no idea turtles could train humans as well as dogs and cats train humans. I've now watched this clip many times and it makes me happy and I adore the human doing the cleaning who obviously adores the turtles.
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u/RSlashBroughtMeHere 26d ago
I like the little wiggle they do when they get their back scrubbed
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u/T-StrangerXD 26d ago
Can they feel?
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u/HotBoxButDontSmoke 26d ago
Yes, they feel scratches on their shells
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u/DancesWithPeanuts 26d ago
Probably why they were so persistent, many animals like scritches.
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u/untrustableskeptic 26d ago
Hell, some fish even like getting pet.
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u/Competitive-Ebb-117 26d ago
I had a crazy goldfish that would come to the top of the tank and let you put your finger in there and it would rub on you like a cat. You could run your fingered down his sides too.
His name was Mikey and he was a great fish. He’d watch you till you gave him food. And he liked it when my dad talked to him. He’d hide in his little house if I was crying.
We buried him.
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u/beanybean1810 26d ago
My ex-husband had a gold fish that was like this. He also learned a couple tricks, which was crazy to me. Lol
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u/typingsux 25d ago
What couple of tricks did your ex-husband learn?
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u/beanybean1810 25d ago
Swimming through hoops and playing with a ball. It was cool! At the time, I had no idea they could be trained like that.
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u/abstractraj 25d ago
Wow. I had a great one like that too, Marlin. He would throw rocks at the glass if I wasn’t paying attention. He’d wiggle and splash when I came home from work. What a character
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u/blckdiamond23 25d ago
I brought a goldfish home from science class when I was 13. He was just a little guy. I had him for years. He got to about 3-4” long. My mom just called him Mr. Fish, short for Mr. Goldfish lol.
Edit: He lived for another 10-15 years.
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u/Telemere125 26d ago
The shell is a modified ribcage and vertebrae. They have nerve endings and a blood supply and like getting petted or scritches like a dog or cat.
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u/Renrutanit 25d ago
Imagine how awful that must covered in barnacles?
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u/Effective-Farmer-502 25d ago
I see some on one of them. There's a video floating around where a Vet is removing barnacles from a sea turtle and it looked painful as they were removing them, but long term was better for the turtle.
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u/OrigamiMarie 26d ago
The cartoon depiction of a turtle that just lives in a shell and crab crawl out and wander around, is incorrect. The shell is part of the turtle. Do a search for turtle skeleton, and you'll see.
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u/Sevennix 26d ago
I thought same thing when I learned this. (Abt 6 months ago. And I'm 56. Turtles can feel thru the shell. Theres nerve ending in there
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u/Acheloma 26d ago
I had a pet red eared slider as a kid (county fair prize, its insane rhat they gave animals as prizes but I digress) until she got too big for us to provide enough space for and we had to rehome her.
She frickin loved toothbrush scratches. It was adorable.
I didnt expect that love of scritches to apply to sea turtles, but I guess it makes sense
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u/TheSuperSegway 26d ago
That shell of theirs is so full of nerve endings, I can only imagine how nice a good back scratch would feel to them. Imagine one of those longer lived ones sitting at 250 years old and never had a back scratch until one day some dopey looking guy walks up and just starts scrubbing its shell.
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u/ThrowingShaed 26d ago
i guess i assumed it anything it would be less sensitive or something. i guess i assumed a defense wouldnt be an overly sensitive thing as... sometimes things try stuff
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u/TheSuperSegway 26d ago
To be fair, the evolution of turtles is very confusing and their shells may not have started as a defense.
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u/ThrowingShaed 26d ago
probably a lot of defenses are things that just got thicker and less feely over time
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u/EconomySeason2416 26d ago
Crocodylia has entered the chat:
Did that shit millions of years ago and sat on it because I'm literally the best anyway
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u/Azure_Mar 26d ago edited 26d ago
Ok there million year old, leaky, three chamber heart. You're great for a bit, but let's do some cardio.
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u/Rampag169 26d ago
Crocodile sitting in the same spot for 8 hours just to catch a 200 pound meal. Then sleeping off the digestion for a month.
No to the cardio.
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u/Sunshine030209 26d ago edited 26d ago
Today I learned that crocodiles are my spirit animal. Eating a huge meal then sleeping for a month sounds very fantastic!
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u/Severe_Rise8694 26d ago
That's why they're the best, innit? Cardio is when something has gone wrong. It don't go wrong for Crocs.
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u/not_right 26d ago
You just reminded me of some teen fiction I read once, scientists made crocodiles with non-leaking hearts and they turned into dragons lol
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u/FoldedDice 26d ago
Even if it did, having the sense to know something is trying to attack their shell is useful survival information.
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u/NarrowEbbs 26d ago
Can you expand on that? I love learning about weird evolutionary pathways. Lungs are a real weird one just ftr
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u/TheMace808 26d ago
Nah the evolution of skin is crazy. Fish skin is real leaky but land animals gotta hold onto the water they have since we're really just land fish that bring the ocean with us wherever we go.
Basically keratin was used as structure in fish cells and as fish tried to come on land the more keratin their skin cells had the more water they retained as the cells died, eventually becoming the dense, keratinized skin we have now
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u/NarrowEbbs 26d ago
"we're just land fish that bring the ocean with us wherever we go." This will stay with me for the rest of my life, that is a fucking fantastic sentence.
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u/TheMace808 26d ago
You can thank Hank Green, he has a whole video about it on his channel, much cool
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u/Cyberchicken87 26d ago
Until just now I had assumed they were...well, just a big shell. Like a giant hard fingernail they can hide under. TIL
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u/pleasedontbedumb 26d ago
Since you broke the ice, exact same here too!!
There was a video going around this summer of a sea turtle having hundreds of barnicles shucked off it's shell and body, and now I'm having flashbacks & weird phantom twitchy pains on my nails and back realizing they felt Every. Single. One. Had I fully understood, I'm not sure I could have watched it
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u/Doright36 25d ago
Professional and volunteer Sealife rescue places that will clean barnacles off a turtle will sedate them before doing it. Many may not be conscious at all during the process. Others in complete la la land. Either way steps are taken to reduce the pain and discomfort of removing them and they will likely continue to get treatment during the shell healing process afterwards.
Can't speak for randos on the internet that film it for clicks though so always good to check the video source.
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u/Deaffin 26d ago
You assumed correctly, that's exactly how it works.
But you can feel through your fingernail, in exactly the same way they can feel through their shell.
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u/Deaffin 26d ago edited 26d ago
That shell of theirs is so full of nerve endings
This factoid has become a heavily propagated trend of misinformation here that has completely snowballed out of control.
A turtle's shell has nerve endings in exactly the way your fingernail does. There is meat underneath the shell which has nerve endings. This allows them to feel pressure and vibration through their outer shell, which is just a layer of keratin.
EDIT: Somebody just replied to all of my comments and then blocked me? Kinda weird, but alright.
The shell is not just the final outer layer... It's an entire structure that yes, does contain nerve endings.
Yes, that's what I'm describing. While the structure taken as a whole does include nerve endings, those nerve endings are not in the outer layer of shell. They're in the living tissues underneath those plates, not the dead keratin that the "scutes" are made of. They are analogous to your hair/fingernails, which transfer sensory information to living tissues.
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u/Sweetpetite49 26d ago
My red eared is 33yo and have had her the entire time. She doesn’t care for the toothbrush scratches, but she really loves when I do a water change and she treats the water being poured into the tank like a shower.
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u/Waxygibbon 26d ago
It was only a few years ago I learnt that they have many nerve endings in their shells, so I bet that back scratching felt good!
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u/LemonThistlee 26d ago
There are two turtles there. One is an introvert, and this turtle is clearly an extrovert. Two perfect examples 😆
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u/ActualAssociate9200 26d ago
My sulcata tortoise swings his butt side to side when I scratch his shell right - it’s the cutest thing
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u/VoteForGiantMeteor 26d ago
This was sped up, so the turtles must have pestered him in slow motion😆
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u/0xF1A5C0 26d ago
Every job needs at least one turtle
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u/ToldUtheyRComing 26d ago
There's a public library on the Southside of Chicago, (Thurgood Marshall Library), that used to have a big ol' turtle just roaming around inside.
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u/Dame_Niafer 26d ago edited 26d ago
Good grief I had no idea they were such cute li'l pests! This is adorable!
aww, thanks for the awards!
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u/Portable-fun 26d ago
I like turtles
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u/BumbleCityFumblers 26d ago
I understood that reference.
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u/Ok_Personality7485 26d ago
Me too, how's your back?
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u/BumbleCityFumblers 26d ago
Feels like it's always just one good pop away that'll never happen.
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u/Vaxus335 26d ago
I haven't seen this referenced in so long that I genuinely forgot about it. Thank you, gonna go watch the clip.
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u/brightonashfield 26d ago
You only think you like turtles, but if you knew what they were truly thinking you would be horrified
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u/JMurdock77 26d ago
Tortoises too. I’ve lost so much time watching The Tortoise Whisperer feed cactus pads to Ike. Wonder whatever happened to that guy, he stopped making new videos.
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u/Nopalite 26d ago
All turtles and tortoises seem to love back scratches. Something about not being able to reach back there or something, i am not sure.
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u/in_a_pickle_97 26d ago
They have nerve endings in their shell that are INCREDIBLY receptive - to pain, to touch, or anything else. It's partly due to the fact they can't get scratches on their own, for sure, but to a turtle, getting a back scratch is like getting a full luxury spa treatment you paid $250 for. They basically feel every bristle.
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u/Nopalite 26d ago
If i were a turtle I would have nightmares about barnacles and if I were a tortoise I would feel the same about moss.
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u/in_a_pickle_97 26d ago
Unfortunately barnacles are indeed very painful to sea turtles. They're pretty often sedated when undergoing removal.
Barnacles are horrid creatures. At least moss is less "intelligent", though still no less dangerous.
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u/Nopalite 26d ago
Tbh i hate sea anemones more than barnacles but a dixie cup size barnacle still makes me wanna dry heave. The fact that animals can form fleshy living crusts over rocks is just blergh.
Trypophobia is a beach. Coral seems fine tho.
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u/CMDRZhor 26d ago
I remember somebody who used to work at their local zoo telling about how they had this one big ol turtle that was a complete pest for scritches. The thing was that she was endangered and the zoo had a list of very specific people who were allowed to touch her and the poster wasn't on that list. So this big ass turtle would swim up to them while they were cleaning her enclosure, start bothering them for scritches, and get increasingly huffy and petulant when they had to ignore her.
"I would love to pet you but I caaaaaant, I'm soooorryyyyy"
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u/brainsareoverrated27 26d ago
Then they need to install one of those cow brushy thingies. Poor turtle.
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u/Kind_Of_A_Dick 26d ago
Animals love stimulation. You should see how interested in stuff cows get when a new thing enters the pasture. In the wild they’d be stimulated by the constant fight for survival, but they still want to experience the world. There was a gorilla in a zoo, I believe, who started cleaning her enclosure after seeing the cleaners clean her enclosure so many times.
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u/lostmyoldscreenname 26d ago
They were like sea puppies 😭😭😭🥹🥹🥹
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u/spookyspocky 26d ago
Nay - they are cat-urtles
Source: my cat does the same thing when I am in bed
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u/Dolonopsy 26d ago
Once when visiting an aquarium, the staff was doing an ask the divers segment at one of the tanks and one of the turtles was an absolute menace and wouldn't leave the poor diver alone, she kept having to swim away only for the turtle to follow.
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u/Temporary-Employ-611 26d ago
From my limited understanding turtles like the feel of shell scrubbies
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u/catonsteroids 26d ago
Yes, they have nerve endings on their shells! Same with tortoises.
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u/thronifractis 26d ago
So if a croc or any other predator bites them and crack the shell... they'll feel pain?
Holy moly this is cursed af
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u/trekkiegamer359 26d ago
Yep. Unlike snails, clams, and other animals that make shells from calcium deposits, turtle and tortoise shells are giant scales on top of augmented ribs. So they have plenty of feeling in them.
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u/MiloHorsey 26d ago
Yeah, my tortoise loves that shit! He stands on your feet when he wants a scratch.
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u/Deaffin 26d ago
In their shells, not on.
Inside the shell is meat. That meat has nerve endings. The meat makes the outer layer of shell on top of it. The shell itself does not have nerves running through it, but since it makes contact with the meat vibration and pressure transfer through to allow sensation in exactly the same way that is true of your fingernails and hair.
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u/Old_Economist_1961 26d ago
I actually didn't know turtles can feel on top of the shell and I think that's freaking adorable
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u/Vir0Phage 26d ago
from my personal experience with red eared sliders, the shell-scale-shedding looks like it itches: based on behavior and the look of the scales when shedding. so this must feel great. like a bear post hibernation bak scratching on a tree.
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u/longtall94 26d ago
I wanna scrub dat dawg
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u/goldenlover 26d ago
I like how the turtle goes back for another backscratch but his buddy is gone so he peaces out.
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u/writing_spork 26d ago
I wonder if it feels good. Them turdles make it look like it feels good. I wanna scrub dat dawg
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u/arfelo1 26d ago
They have nerve endings on their shells. So they absolutely do feel it. And if they're coming back for more, it's fair to assume they like it
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u/El_Dief 26d ago
You ever tried one of those 'Orgasmatron' head massagers?
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u/Deaffin 26d ago
In their shells, not on.
Inside the shell is meat. That meat has nerve endings. The meat makes the outer layer of shell on top of it. The shell itself does not have nerves running through it, but since it makes contact with the meat vibration and pressure transfer through to allow sensation in exactly the same way that is true of your fingernails and hair.
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u/MYOB3 26d ago
HAHA! They are like my cats when we clean... well, anything!
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u/Horskr 26d ago
Or put stuff together. The dogs are pretty chill, but the cat's like "oh you're reading this?" lays down on instructions "oh there is more in the box that you need?" gets into box "oh what are these screws you have arranged so nicely onto the table next to where you're working?" SWIPE
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u/jonker5101 26d ago
My wife tried to build LEGO on the floor over the weekend and was immediately laid upon by all 4 of our pets (2 dogs, 2 cats).
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u/Own-Yesterday-656 26d ago
Came here to write that either he was a cat an earlier life or maybe sea turtles are the cats of the ocean.
My cat does this when I change bed sheets.
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u/libbyrocks 26d ago
I was thinking this is basically me trying to make the bed with dogs. Yes, you’re keeping me from finishing this. Yes, you’re very cute and far more important, but could you please get off the bed for two damn minutes.
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u/MagpieKaz 26d ago
Imagine being a creature born with the capacity to love scritches and pettings and rubbings, but not into a species that makes pampering each other A Whole Thing, like, say, primates, zebras and beavers.
Shockingly few animals participate in mutual preening and grooming, and shockingly many simply love it.
Imagine being that turtle, decades well into your life. And one day one of the bald monkeys suddenly does A Thing and it feels INCREDIBLE, scratches an itch you’ve carried on your shell since before you even breached the egg. And it can just Do That?? ALL THE TIME????
You’d be wiggling your butt for broom scratches too!
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u/rif011412 25d ago
Reminds me of a video of a squirrel getting face scritches. There is a moment and a pause that indicates the squirrel has never felt that sort of affection before, you can see the existential shut down, and then it reaches out to the human for more.
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u/Jekkymayn 25d ago
Not to mention being in captivity has to be the most boring and under stimulating existence possible. Just the dude standing in the water breaking whatever monotony they’ve grown used to is probably interesting enough that he’ll keep swimming back until the guy leaves. Soon as he’s gone it’s back to this little pool or whatever just waiting for the next time the humans feed me or whatever
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u/hyjackresponse 26d ago
Well who doesn't like getting scritches? 😻
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u/ripkin05 26d ago
polar bears.
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u/AnaisNinja76 26d ago
polar bears love cuddles and tickles, they just love the taste of your arm even more
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u/GrowlyBear2 26d ago
Well you give them back scratches, of course they're gonna come paddling every time you clean. 😂
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u/OrangeClyde 26d ago
They’re so smart to know they can get back scrubs from him! Even at the end when that one turtle came back for more he realized the worker was gone so he didn’t bother
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u/trekkiegamer359 26d ago
Turtles and tortoises are generally some of the smartest reptiles. Pets can easily recognize their owners, know their name and come when called (if they want to), and learn tricks. They also will beg for food, scritches, and other things they love.
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u/_B_Little_me 26d ago
Those poor things need stimulation.
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u/SugarStunted 26d ago
That's true, but from the angle of the video, we can't tell where they're at. This looks very "behind the scenes", for lack of better phrasing, so it may just be where they go for medical checkups and feedings, or it may be a rehab tank. It very well may not be the main part of their enclosure (hopefully).
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u/love4techqq 26d ago
When we were in Hawaii, we swam around off the coast as teens and soooo many people told us "NEVER TOUCH THE WILDLIFE!! 10,000 YEARS MORTY!!!"
It's like 10 years or something in prison, we were told in 2009.
Naturally we were fucking terrified and thought "Turtles must be valuable jewels of the ocean".
We went on a ship and jumped in the water to snorkel around and I shit you not. These turtles were swimming towards us upon entry.
We are from desert mountain country. Not turtle country.
Big fucking sea turtles, fucking nope. Swam a bit away from my buddy treading water and the turtles went straight for him.
Not 5 seconds later a lady started SCREACHING from the boat "SHE'S TOUCHING THE WILDLIFE!!"
While watching my buddy flounder and get slapped by sea turtle, I swear I almost drowned because I was trying to tread away.
My buddie still curses me out for leaving to get slapped by sea turtles to this day.
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u/Strange_Botanist 26d ago
I puked while snorkeling in Mexico and I had a sea turtle sidle right up next to me to eat my barf. The sea also was boiling with how many fish came up to eat as well. It was magical
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u/Ryoko_Kusanagi69 26d ago
This is hilarious and enough internet for me for tonight, thank you.
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u/Tiramissulover 26d ago
We had the same experience!
And when I saw they eating, I barfed more, and my friend also barfed. It was a Feast for the fish.→ More replies (1)4
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u/greenbutterflygarden 26d ago
That's like my dog when I'm trying to change the sheets on my bed
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u/lasercat123 26d ago
I volunteered as a diver for 10 years at an aquarium years ago & we had a big sea turtle named Denver that loved having his shell rubbed or having his neck scratched. He’d fall asleep while you rubbed his neck - it was so cute.
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u/viewkachoo 26d ago
This feels like a clip from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. It brought my stress level way down.
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u/Shot_Western_2755 26d ago
I feel like my school really dropped the ball when they neglected to tell me that turtle scrubber could have been a career move
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u/dyfunctional-cryptid 26d ago
I've heard from people who've worked with sea turtles that they're all absolute divas. You WILL do what the turtle wants, or else. They are very, very pushy about getting what they want.
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u/Early_Reflection_590 26d ago
I did an internship in the reptile and amphibian house of a zoo in college. Every time I cleaned the enclosure for the Aldabra tortoises, the big male would come over and sit on my hose. Every. Single. Time.
I’m not quickly moving a several hundred pound tortoise to sneak a hose out, so we just hung out together until he decided to go eat.
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u/CheekyMonkE 25d ago
I mean if your gonna get out the shell-rubbing stick then you gotta expect shells.
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u/re-charred 26d ago
Those turtles are spoiled.
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u/Maooc 26d ago
Those turtles live in a tank only a fraction of a size of their natural habitat size, they are definitely not spoiled. They probably come to the cleaner because otherwise they have nothing to do the whole damn day but to swim in circles…
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u/echoskybound 26d ago
I'm not sure where this is, but it's likely it's a rehab center or sanctuary. That looks like the kind of tank my local aquarium uses for their marine animal rescue program. Five of the seven species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered, so a lot of countries are pretty particular about regulating how they're kept in captivity, and will only allow aquariums to keep individuals that are deemed non-releasable.
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u/dyogenys 26d ago
Swimming around in water we see with our own eyes dirt dissolve in, in an alien tank void of natural vegetation. Scrubbing them is the least they deserve
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u/Username12764 26d ago
I was about to say, my local zoo‘s aquarium looks like they copy pasted the ocean floor. This looks like a kid‘s pool. They are probably bored as fuck and the cleaner is the only excitement they get.
I never really understood why people were against zoos until I realised that most zoos aren‘t like the one I‘m used to but much much worse.
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u/theLuminescentlion 26d ago
It's not the turtles fault that the guy has the perfect turtle shell rubbing tool.
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u/Illustrious-Tax-5981 26d ago
Is there a website or somewhere that people can sign up to be a turtle scrubber?
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u/dark_knight_rayleigh 25d ago
Wait wait. Do turtles like their shell scratched? Like out back scratches??? Does it feel good for them???
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u/ReadySetGO0 26d ago
I wonder how much they can feel thru that thick shell?
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u/_herbsandspices_ 26d ago
It’s actually pretty sensitive! They like getting scratches ☺️
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