I was recently watching a documentary where I saw hundreds of turtles migrating. This made me wonder how they communicate to be synchronized, do they talk? So I decided to research turtle communication and here is what I found out.
Turtles don’t have vocal cords so they are unable to talk, but they are still able to communicate verbally through different sounds. But despite this, the main way of communicating between turtles is nonverbal.
So turtles do communicate with each other using sounds and body language, but they are not exactly talking with each other. But the sounds and gestures that they make are quite unique, for example, the mating ritual of spitting water in the face of the turtle that they like. So let’s take a look at the interesting way turtles communicate with each other.
Turtles Communicating With Sounds
Turtles very rarely make sounds, and when they do it’s usually for a very important purpose, like mating or defending themselves.
Mating Sounds
The sounds that turtles make when they are mating are very distinctive, and not the kind of sounds you would expect a turtle to make.
It’s really hard to describe those sounds, so here is a video of where you can hear them.
The sounds that you heard in the video are not intentional, they are a byproduct of the movements of the turtle. But turtles can create sounds intentionally, and those sounds are a lot more intimidating than the ones they do during mating.
Defensive Sounds
Like most animals, turtles will usually make a sound when they are about to fight with another animal to intimidate them so they won’t have to actually fight. Those sounds are kind of a combination of hissing and heavy breathing. In the video below you can hear this sound made by a snapping turtle, that is trying to intimidate its opponent.
Certain turtle species, like the big-headed turtle of Asia, will sometimes emit a loud sound very similar to a roar when it’s removed from the water. This sound is meant to scare and discourage predators to attack the turtle. At the moment the big-headed turtle is the only turtle known to produce this sound.
Another species that uses sound is the Arrau turtle that lives in South America. They emit a sound when they are underwater that works as a form of long-distance echolocation. The Arrau turtles usually travel a lot in the dark waters of the Amazon River so they evolved this ability to help them navigate the dark waters.
Why Those Sounds Are Not Considered Talking
Before we move to silent communication I want to tell you why those sounds are considered simple sounds and not talking.
The reason is quite simple, turtles don’t have vocal cords, so they can’t control those sounds. Those sounds are created when turtles quickly expel air out of their lungs. So it’s quite different from what we, humans, do, or what other animals do when they “talk”.
Silent Communication
Very few turtle species use any kind of verbal communication, but all of them use some form of silent communication and most of them are used for mating.
A lot of aquatic male turtles use their long foreclaws to attract mates during the mating season. Male turtles that don’t have long foreclaws but have long noses will force a stream of water in the face of the female which whom they are trying to mate with.
Female turtles also use silent communication to attract males, but instead of spitting water in their faces, they use a more subtle way. During the mating period, some female turtle species will blink underwater while facing a male. The color of the eyelids is brighter than the rest of the skin so they will stand out more.
Another form of silent communication is done by the male gopher tortoise, which knocks against the ground near a burrow to see if there is anybody there. This act is usually done in the mating season and it is intended to bring the groper female out of the burrow. If the female turtle is unavailable it will communicate by either blocking the entrance or by hissing.
Fun fact: If you find a turtle burrow, you can pound the ground near it, and most probably a turtle will come to the surface, but be careful because they can become aggressive.
But turtle communication is not always this basic, at certain ages turtles are able to communicate in more advanced ways, in which even humans are not able to.
How Baby Turtles Communicate
You’ve probably seen a video or a movie with a scene of baby turtles leaving the beach and going to the ocean. In case you haven’t until now you can watch the one below.
You’ve probably noticed that in all of those videos you will see a lot of turtles leaving for the ocean at almost exactly the same time. New studies show that baby turtles are able to communicate while they are still in the eggs. This is why they are able to always synchronize when they are leaving.
The exact way in which they communicate is not known, but scientists are examining different possibilities, like pheromones, and low frequency sounds amongst other possibilities.
Turtles don’t only communicate amongst themselves, they also communicate with humans.
How Turtles Communicate With Humans
Most of the communication turtles have with humans is non-verbal, it’s extremely simple, and will differ from turtle to turtle.
Here is an example of how my turtle communicates with me. Due to my schedule, I feed my turtle at about 8 PM. If I am very busy on a certain day and forget to feed him at around 8 PM, sometimes he will start taping on the glass as a sign that he wants food.
This kind of communication will only develop with time and is usually due to certain repetitive actions. But as I said it differs from turtle to turtle.
One of the most common things that turtles do to communicate with their owners is to hide in their shells, this usually means that they are scared or don’t like something.
Another way turtles communicate with humans is when they try to bite them when they are being picked up. This means that they hate it and they want to be put down.
As I said most communication is very basic and usually revolves around not liking something, and wanting food/
Why Turtles Have So Few Ways of Communicating
Turtles are not very social animals. They usually communicate only during the mating period. So they haven’t developed their communication skills very much. And sometimes they will communicate when they are aggressive, but not always.
Most turtles can only communicate the fact that they want to mate and that they will attack you if you don’t leave. And because they like to spend a lot of time alone they really don’t need anything else.
Final Thoughts
So turtles aren’t able to talk like we do, but some species will sometimes use sounds to communicate. Most turtle species will communicate in nonverbal ways.
Turtles are able to produce sounds, but they do this very rarely. Mostly because they spend a lot of time alone so there is no need for them to communicate anything using sound.
At the moment there are scientists that are studying turtle communication and especially sound communication between turtles. So if anything important is discovered I will update the article.
If you have any questions about turtle communication you should ask them in the comment section, I will answer them as soon as possible.
Related Questions
Are turtles able to hear sounds? For a long time, people believed that turtles are deaf. But now we know that they can hear, at the moment it is believed that they can only hear very low-frequency sounds. Low frequency sounds also travel a lot better underwater. So the hearing of a turtle is at its best underwater.
When are turtles the most social? Turtles are not very social. The most social behavior is displayed during the mating season.
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