Tortoise Tomfoolery

Curious Cases

BBC

Technology, Science

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tortoises have traditionally been the poster child for slowness. These ancient, armoured reptiles are solitary, territorial and all-too-often dismissed as dull.

In fact, tortoises have distinct personalities. They have changeable moods, can learn simple tasks, remember certain useful information for years and even recognise familiar people.

But can they play?

Hot on the trail of tortoise tomfoolery, Hannah and Dara explore the stereotype-smashing studies that show there's far more to these creatures than previously thought; and find out that these complex behaviours might apply not only to the turtle clan, but potentially other reptiles as well...

To submit your question to the Curious Cases team, please email: [email protected]

Contributors: - Anna Wilkinson, Professor of Animal Cognition at the University of Lincoln - Unnar Karl Aevarsson, Herpetologist at ZSL London Zoo - Gordon Burghardt, Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Psychology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee

Producer: Lucy Taylor Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem A BBC Studios Production

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.0	My Christmas Mix is pure 90s festive nostalgia.
0:11.1	You know, the Christmas songs you listen to on repeat.
0:14.0	Ho!
0:14.3	Ho! Ho! No, no, no.
0:17.5	I'm all about the big hitting Christmas anthems.
0:20.4	Come on, guys. What about those tunes that really slay? It's Christmas kitchen disco season, surely.
0:26.4	Give me hip-hip-christmas banners every day. Those Christmas tracks that are straight out of lapland.
0:30.9	Get all kinds of Christmassy. Just search Christmas music on BBC Sounds.
0:35.8	You're about to listen to a brand new episode of Curious Cases.
0:39.1	Shows are going to be released weekly, wherever you get your podcast.
0:41.9	But if you're in the UK, you can listen to the latest episodes first on BBC Sounds.
0:49.9	I'm Hannah Fry.
0:51.1	And I'm Dara O'Brien.
0:52.3	And this is Curious Cases.
0:54.0	The show will we take your quirkiest questions? Your crudious conundrums. And then we solve them. With the power of science. I mean, do we always solve them? I mean, the hit rate's pretty low. But it is with science. It is with science. Big news in the Aubreyan household.
1:11.4	Yeah, actually, I didn't want to trouble you all with this,
1:14.5	but it has been a difficult time.
1:16.1	I've hardly been able to concentrate.
1:17.1	Listen back over the previous episodes
1:18.5	and see if you can feel the ripple of worry in my voice.
1:21.3	Somebody went missing.
	...

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