Story Hour
Gordie the Social Tortie
Written by Gene B. Williams
|
Click here for the archive page with a list of previous stories. Please remember that all materials on this website are copyrighted. No reproduction without express permission. |
Danny’s mother was the first to see him. “What’s THAT?”
He was some distance away, outside the yard and crawling along the fence. I’m used to unusual creatures – I live with a family of sea dragons, you know – but this one surprised me. The Arizona desert tortoise is pretty big. They can get to be about a foot long and weigh ten pounds. This one was almost twice that long, and weighed 19 pounds. No, it wasn’t some average desert tortoise. More than that, though, his arms and legs were covered with thick thorns. Also, he was moving much too fast for a regular tortoise.
It was getting dark. I brought him inside the yard for his safety. Since then, he just kinda settled in and became part of the family. He also grew. It has been less than a year and he now weighs nearly 30 pounds. (How much do YOU weigh?) And he’s still young. When he is fully grown, he could be almost 3 feet long and 150 to 200 pounds! To give you some idea, here he is with my big dog Gus. Gus weighs about 80 pounds.
 |
 |
His name is Gordie. No, he’s not Grandpa Gordie(Nicker’s grandpa). No, he’s not Papa Gordie (Danny’s grandpa). He’s Gordie the Social Tortie. He likes people, and likes the dogs and likes sea dragons. The cats – well, he just ignores them. Originally, he came from the Sahara Desert in Africa. Somehow he ended up here in the Arizona desert, but he can’t remember how he got here.
Gordie is a sulcata (sul-CAW-tuh) tortoise. These are sometimes called the “spur thigh tortoise” because of the thorns. They are the world’s largest land-based tortoise. (The Galapagos tortoise is bigger, but they live on an island near the ocean, not on the mainland.)
Those thorns on his legs are good for protection, but they have a better use. The sulcata likes to dig, and BOY can they dig! In nature, they’ll dig down and make a tunnel 10 feet long. Gordie already showed us how he can dig. In just a few hours, he dug a hole under a bush and was busy making a tunnel under the patio.
Most tortoises hibernate. That means, when it gets cold, they go to sleep and don’t wake up until it’s warm. The sulcata doesn’t do this. Gordie has been awake – and hungry – all this winter.
They also like to wander. In nature, they will go hundreds of miles. Here in the yard, Gordie will munch some grass, walk, munch, walk, munch, walk, until he has covered the entire yard. Right after he came, Gordie explored the entire yard. Now he knows every inch of it, and has his favorite spots.
The food is mostly grass and certain kinds of weeds. Gordie’s very favorite food is grapes, but he’s not allowed very many. In the wild, they can’t find very many fruits to eat. This is good because their bodies can’t tolerate many sweets. They also don’t drink much water. In fact, too much water can hurt them. They also can’t take much protein. Wherever Gordie had been before he came here, he wasn’t getting a proper diet. The bumps on his shell, for example, tell me that he was getting too much protein.
Look at the picture. You can see part of Gordie’s “lunchroom.” He spends his days grazing that yard and basking in the sun. In the evening, he comes home. Usually, his nose and mouth are green from all that fresh grass. Every now and then, he gets a treat, such as a piece of tomato, or a couple of grapes.
I’ll tell you something funny about the sulcata and grapes. Gordie isn’t the only sulcata to love grapes.
As I already told you, the sulcata tortoise can grow to be 150 to 200 pounds. Right now, at 27 pounds, I can pick him up and carry him inside on a cold night. Pretty soon he will be too heavy to lift. What some people do is to put out grapes. The sulcata tortoise will follow those grapes anywhere. That way, you can get them to crawl inside.
They have excellent eyesight, and recognize sounds. Look at his picture. His eyes are small. Try to even find his ears. (He has ears. They’re just not like your ears. Gordie’s ears are more like Nicker’s ears.)
Gordie got used to us. If we were on the patio, Gordie would come and try to be part of things. He’d crawl on our toes, stretch his head out to be scratched. Then we noticed, he’d be out grazing and exploring until he heard our voices. That’s when he would come.
One day, I had to repair a sprinkler in the yard. Gordie was happily munching grass off in one corner. He stopped munching and walked all the way across the yard to where I was. He put his nose to the sprinkler, seemed to sniff the tools, walked on my feet for a while, then munched his way to the patio to talk with the dogs.
When I got done and came up to the house, Gordie looked at me with his grass green mouth and asked, “Got a grape?”
Like this story?
Click here to see previous stories!
