These amazing creatures live on the land and in water and have been on the earth a very long time. Welcome back to another episode of Remnant Stew. I’m Leah. I’m Phil, And I’m Steve. Join us today as we celebrate these amazing shelled reptiles. This is Season 5 Episode 13: TURTLES, TORTOISES & TERRAPINS - Oh My!
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INTRO AND STORIES |
INTRO Banter about our first experiences with turtles.
I remember my first encounter with turtles. I was about eight years old, and my father had just driven home in his old 1948 Chevrolet Pick-up truck. In the bed of the truck were about twelve tortoises. Each one had a number painted on its back; #1 – 12. Now my dad was the city and county health inspector, so it wasn’t uncommon for him to come home with unusual items, but this was quite unusual. “What are the turtles for, Dad?” “They’re for the Turtle Race at the Lions Club Carnival,” dad said matter of factly.
Every June in my hometown of Kerrville, Texas for three days the local Lions Club held a carnival on the Kerr County Courthouse Square. There were rides and food and game booths of some variety, but I didn’t remember seeing a turtle race the previous year. This was a new event that the local Lions Club had dreamed up. A large circular wooden platform had been constructed about six feet in diameter and some four inches high. Near the outer perimeter of the circle, turtle sized slots had been cut. A circular chalk line had been drawn about two feet beyond the edge of the platform. The idea was that the turtles would be placed in the slots, then the whole platform would be lifted off. People would place bets on the number of the turtle they thought would win. Great idea! So, the first night of the Lion’s Club Carnival I was curious to see how this would work. A couple of the Lions were placing the turtles in the starting slots when I arrived. Twelve people had to bet on a number, first come first pick. Soon those twelve plus a larger circle of onlookers arranged themselves around the circular platform. With a countdown of 3 – 2 – 1 the platform was lifted and one of the Lions yelled, “There Off!” Except that they really weren’t. The twelve turtles just sat there with curious looks on their faces as the wagering public shouted encouragement for them to get moving. After about half a minute #4 took a couple of steps toward the circle which elicited some excited cheers from the teenage girl who was holding the #4 ticket, but then he stopped again. In the meantime, #12 had turned completely around and was headed in the wrong direction. “Go the other way!” yelled the man who held the 12 ticket, but to no avail. Then number 2 began to move forward and was making detectable progress toward the chalk line when he stopped to munch on a leaf from a live oak tree that happened to be laying on the ground. This prompted the woman holding the #7 ticket to break off a few leaves from an overhanging oak tree and place them just beyond the chalk line in front of #7. Unfortunately, #7 didn’t appear to notice, but #8 did and began a remarkably fast turtle crawl toward the leaves. So, then the #7 woman tried to pick up the leaves, but it was too late as #8 sped across the chalk line and was declared the winner. The person holding #8 won a turtle shaped stuffed animal. The entire turtle race took about five minutes. Evidently #8 was both the Einstein and Usain Bolt of the turtle world because he won the next two races also. Word began to spread around the carnival for people to bet on #8. The Lions declared that the turtles needed to rest and so the next race was announced to be half an hour later. During the break the numbers were secretly changed.
Anyway, that was my first experience with turtles, and I have always had happy thoughts associated with them since.
LET’S LEARN ABOUT TURTLES
According to sandiegozoo.org turtles, tortoises, and terrapins are all reptiles. They all have shells, lay eggs, and are cold blooded as in ectothermic, (not sinister). They vary in size from easily fitting in your hand to weighing over 1,800 pounds. They can be found everywhere from deserts to oceans to backyard creeks. So, what’s the difference between a turtle, a tortoise and a terrapin? Well, they are generally classified based on where they live and how they use their habitat.
Turtles spend most of their life in the water. Their feet are webbed which helps them to swim. Sea turtles are equipped with especially long legs which help them to navigate through strong currents. Like the East Australian Current that the surfer dude sea turtle “Crush” and his son “Squirt” navigated in the Disney movie “Finding Nemo.” A sea turtle’s shell is more streamlined in shape than freshwater turtles. They rarely come out of the water except for when females lay their eggs on the shore. Freshwater turtles live in streams and ponds and also generally stay in the water but do come out to sun themselves on logs or rocks from time to time. They also lay their eggs on the shore. When the weather gets cold, turtles often burrow into the mud where they hibernate until warm weather arrives again. Most species of turtles are omnivores eating a variety of fish, worms, and plant life.
Tortoises, on the other hand, do not live in the water. They prefer living on the land. Their legs are stumpy, and their feet are round, not webbed. So those actually were tortoises that you saw racing. Their round feet help them to maneuver around on land. Tortoises tend to be herbivores eating a variety of plants including grass, shrubs, and even cactus. Their strong front legs are well designed for digging. When the weather gets too hot a tortoise will often dig a hole and crawl underground to take refuge from the heat.
And then there are Terrapins who live on both land and water. They generally stay clear of the ocean, but can be found along the shores of rivers, ponds, and lakes, and are especially fond of swampy areas. Their diet consists of a variety of plant and animal life.
So, if it lives in the water, it is a turtle. If it has round feet and is on the land it is a tortoise. If it is hanging out by the water but rarely goes in, then it is likely a terrapin. But beyond these differences they are very similar to one another. So, unless we need to clarify a specific one, we will be referring to the 3Ts as turtles during this episode.
According to britanica.com there are some 350 different species of turtles found in the oceans of the world and on all continents except Antarctica. This is not a huge number of species compared to other members of the animal kingdom. By comparison there are believed to be over 11,000 species of birds. The small number of turtle species doesn’t equate to a lack of diversity as can be seen by the great variance in shell size. The smallest species like the flattened musk turtle measure a mere four inches in length whereas the leatherback sea turtles are nearly five feet long. In addition, some turtles spend their lives in very cold climates whereas others dwell in the tropics.
An interesting article from listverse.com called Ten Bizarre Turtle Species demonstrates the variety in the turtle realm. Some of the most interesting species that caught our attention include the following:
The Mary River Turtle in Eastern Australia which allows algae to grow on its head and shell as a means of camouflage. The algae on its head looks like spiky hair which gives this turtle the nickname Punk Rock Turtle,
The Indian Flapshell Turtle which has little flaps of skin that close when it pulls its legs inside, sort of like a garage door, and The Pig Nosed Turtle of Papua New Guinea. This is the only freshwater turtle with flippers like sea turtles, but its most notable feature is a nose that resembles a pig. This nose acts like a snorkel and sticks up from the water’s surface.
As mentioned earlier, turtles lay eggs in a nest. Some only lay a few while others may lay as many as a hundred. In most cases the mother turtle does not provide any protection or assistance to their babies. Any hatchlings that survive are on their own. Interestingly the baby turtles have one egg tooth that helps them break out of their shell. After that they have to find food on their own. The one exception to this rule is called the Brown Tortoise which does protect the nest from predators. For many turtles and tortoises, the temperature in the nest determines the sex of the hatchlings: warmer nests result in more females, cooler ones result in more males. If a turtle lays eggs in your yard, leave them alone if you can, but if you have to move them be sure to gently mark the top of the shell of each egg with a felt-tip marker. The reason is because unlike bird eggs, turning a turtle egg during a certain part of the embryo development will cause it to die. When a turtle embryobegins to develop in an egg, it attaches to the top of the eggshell.
TURTLE SHELLS AND OTHER HARD FACTS
Now let’s talk about those amazing shells. Of all wildlife with backbones, turtles are the only ones that also have a shell. The shell is made up of 59 to 61 bones covered by plates called scutes, which are made of keratin like our fingernails. The shell’s top is called the carapace, and the bottom is the plastron. Contrary to popular belief, turtles cannot crawl out of their shell. The shell is actually attached to their spine. But some turtles can retract their heads, legs, and feet inside their shell when threatened. These are known as hidden neck turtles. In order to make room inside the shell the turtle will often have to exhale air from their lungs. This can make a long hissing sound. The turtle can feel pressure through their shell just like you can feel pressure through your fingernails.
Though strong, the turtle shell isn’t as heavy as you might think. The keratin contains many tiny air chambers which make the shell lighter and more flexible. So called softshell turtles like the leatherback mentioned above still have hard shells, but they are covered with a tough leathery skin that gives it a softer feel to the touch. The flexible shell allows the leatherback turtle to dive to more than 3,000 feet. An inflexible shell would be crushed by water pressure at that depth.
Here's an odd side note. Before the advent of plastics, shell material from the Hawksbill Sea Turtle was used in making eyeglass frames, guitars, and other decorative items. This is no longer allowed as the Hawksbill is on the endangered species list.
Now we mentioned above that turtles have lungs and they do need oxygen to survive. So how do aquatic turtles obtain oxygen without coming to the surface? In some species, the turtle’s mouth contains a thick lining of blood vessels which can absorb oxygen directly from the water. Other species have a similar lining of blood vessels along their anus. The Australians call these turtles Bum Breathers. The ability to absorb oxygen directly from the water allows turtles to stay submerged for days at a time.
Turtles do not have ears like you and me, but they do appear to be able to pick up vibrations and changes in water pressure that alert them to the presence of a predator. They also appear to have a good sense of smell. Some turtles seem to have senses or instincts that are not fully understood by researchers. Tracking devices have shown that some sea turtles travel thousands of miles on regular routes and return to the same beaches every two or three years to lay their eggs. Though their skin appears to be tough and leathery it is actually quite sensitive. Researchers have discovered that Galapagos Turtles enjoy having their necks rubbed.
Turtles do not have teeth. Instead, they have powerful upper and lower jaws which are lined with an edge of keratin. These sharp edges allow them to easily kill small prey and to cut meat from the bones of larger animals. Their jaws also allow them to chop vegetation into bite sized pieces. Humans should exercise caution when handling a turtle as their bites can be strong enough to sever a finger. Alligator snapping turtles have been known to bite through a broomstick. An old myth states that if a turtle bites you, it won’t let go until it thunders. And speaking of handling turtles, it is advised to always wash your hands thoroughly after picking them up due to the possibility of salmonella contamination.
Under good conditions turtles can live fairly long lives. It is not uncommon for turtles to live more than forty years. Some species including the Greek Tortoise and Leopard Tortoise live to be 100 years or more. On the British island of St. Helena, a Seychelles Tortoise named Jonathan recently turned 191. He is the oldest known living tortoise in the world according to usatoday.com. A different website called oliverridleyproject.org has an interesting fact about how to age a turtle. After its death, the age of a turtle can be determined by cutting off its arm and counting the annual rings. Yes, just like trees, turtles’ arms grow rings every year.
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TURTLES AS FOOD AND MEDICINE
Turtles and their eggs have long been eaten by people in many parts of the world. According to britanica.com, in some areas, local turtle populations and even entire species have been hunted to extinction. This is not a new occurrence. It appears that Native American populations in what is now Florida ate the local giant tortoise population to extinction more than 10,000 years ago. Natives in Madagascar eliminated that island’s tortoise population more than 2,000 years ago, and the first European colonists to settle the island of (mar ish us) Mauritius wiped out the giant tortoise population in the 1700s.
Even today there is great demand in parts of Asia for turtles as food. In China turtles both large and small are sold for food and for medicine. They were so popular that by the 1990s much of the native turtle population within China had disappeared, so they began to be imported from around the world. The three striped box turtle and the golden coin turtle are such integral parts of traditional Chinese celebrations and medicines that turtle farms have emerged in other Southeast Asian countries to fill the demand. According to latimes.com spotted turtles and box turtles fetch up to $1,000 each on the black market in China. They are in high demand because their red and gold markings make them symbols of good fortune and status. Legend also has it that when eaten, they are sources of sexual prowess and cures for various ailments.
Even with the advent of turtle farms, the demand for turtles has encouraged turtle poachers from China to seek far afield for new sources of turtles. The same latimes.com article mentioned that in 2017 federal wildlife inspectors were randomly checking packages headed for China at a downtown Los Angeles post office when they were alarmed to find 170 turtles hidden in men’s socks in a cardboard box. The turtles were confiscated and taken to a turtle conservancy located in the Los Padres National Forest. According to one researcher, “The Chinese have already driven their own species to near extinction, and now they are raiding ours.”
The same latimes.com article quotes a veterinarian named James Lin who is an expert on illegal reptile trading. According to Lin, “Wild turtle and tortoise populations are crashing around the world, and reasons for that include ultra-rich folks in China who these days collect, farm, and show off turtles at events the size of auto trade shows. These turtle extravaganzas feature dancers, 100-foot-tall video screens and long banquet tables serving turtle soup and fried chopped turtle meat which has been sauteed and smothered in sauce spiced with rare herbs.”
CHINESE FASCINATION WITH TURTLES
So why are the Chinese so taken with turtles? An interesting website from a Turtle Restaurant in Singapore called sersengturtlesoup.com offers some insight. Turtles are deeply intertwined with Chinese mythology. Ancient Chinese believed that the Earth itself sat on the back of a giant turtle. Earthquakes were caused by the turtle’s movements. Chinese culture holds four creatures in high esteem as the Four Auspicious Beasts. These are the phoenix, tiger, dragon, and turtle.
The turtle is regarded as a sign of knowledge, perseverance, prosperity, and long life since it is one of the world’s oldest creatures. The fact that these animals have been known to survive without food for several months, while seldom suffering illness, gave Chinese society reason to believe that they had magical abilities. Do you guys remember our Season 1 Episode 4 called Lost and Found? We had a story about a box turtle that survived in an attic for thirty years!
During the Shang Dynasty from 1766 – 1122 BC the turtle’s shell was thought to be a representation of Heaven. Special mystics called Diviners would advise the emperor each day based on markings from a turtle shell. Turtles were thought to be a link between heaven and earth. This animal, according to Chinese legend, has the knowledge of heaven and earth inside its flesh. The turtle’s shell symbolized the sky or Heaven and the flat part of the turtle symbolized the Earth. It was also believed that a person’s soul was taken to the afterlife on the back of a turtle. Consequently, many turtle shaped graves have been found on the islands between China and Japan.
Another website called taiwan-panarama.com notes an odd twist in current Chinese culture. Even though turtles are honored, revered, and respected, they have also become popular in pronouncing curses on one’s rivals. A real popular diss in China today is to refer to someone as a “Turtle’s Egg” or even worse, “Grandson of a Turtle!” Calling someone a “Turtle’s hair” means that they are too cowardly to take a stand on anything. If someone refers to a married man as a “Turtle with his head pulled in” it means his wife is having an affair.
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THE TURTLE WORLD THEORY
You mentioned the Chinese belief that the earth rode along on the back of a giant turtle. Interestingly, they are not alone in this idea, in fact according to an article in mentalfloss.com they may have borrowed this thought from their neighbors in India. The article quotes an author named Edward Tyler who states that the world turtle concept likely first appeared in Hindu mythology. In one early Hindu story the god Vishnu’s alter avatar is a great turtle with a mountain balanced on its shell.
Not only that, this same concept was shared by Native American cultures. In the creation stories of the (leh-nuh-pee) Lenape and Iroquois people, the Earth created as soil is piled on the back of a great sea turtle that continues to grow until it is carrying the entire world. Some native tribes in North America still refer to the continent as Turtle Island today. An anthropologist named Jay Miller notes that the Iroquois saw characteristics in turtles that they valued in their culture. They demonstrate strength, perseverance, and longevity. Quoting Miller, “Most turtles and tortoises are also famously long-lived, giving them a wise, ancient quality that lends itself to mythologizing.” It was comforting for early civilizations to think that the earth was being led through space by a wise being that actually knows where we are going.
TESTUDO THE TERRAPIN
We hope that you caught our fantastic episode called Mascots which we released earlier this year. In fact, that is S5E4. We talked about a lot of strange and bizarre mascots ranging from high school and college to minor league baseball and even to corporate mascots as well as Uncle Sam. Somehow, we overlooked this one in that episode, but there is a major university in the U.S. in which a member of the turtle family features prominently as their mascot. Can you think of it?
Testudo the Terrapin is the official mascot of the University of Maryland. According to their website umterps.com/sports, in 1932 Maryland coach and athletic director Dr. Curly Byrd recommended that the university adopt the Diamondback Terrapin as the school’s mascot. It is also the Maryland state reptile. Maryland’s teams have been known as the Terrapins ever since. Evidently the Diamondback Terrapin makes its home along the shores of Chesapeake Bay. The name Testudo is taken from the scientific classification for turtles, testudines.
The following year, 1933 the student body chipped in to have a large bronze bust of Testudo cast which would be featured prominently on the campus in front of Ritchie Coliseum. The unveiling was a slow tease as ribbons tied to the actual terrapin which was used as a model slooooowly pulled the veil off the statue as the terrapin plodded along. The statue was immediately popular with students, but unfortunately became the target of mischief from the fans of visiting teams.
In 1947 Testudo was kidnapped by rowdy medical students from Johns Hopkins University and held for ransom at that campus in Baltimore. Immediately a large group of Maryland students drove from College Park to Baltimore and laid siege to the building where Testudo was being held. A riot ensued and some 200 Baltimore police officers were called in to break it up. Testudo was returned, and then a post-riot party broke out among all the students.
Testudo was reinstalled on the Maryland Campus, but in front of the library where visiting fans would be unlikely to go. It has become a tradition during finals week for students to rub Testudo’s nose for good luck, and even to leave offerings in hopes for good grades. In 2013, the Testudo statue caught fire because of an ill-advised mixture of flammable offerings, including alcohol, and a lit candle. This event trended on Twitter for several days.
The Testudo statue is still very popular among students at the University of Maryland. In addition, a costumed version of Testudo sporting a giant M on his shell cavorts along the baselines of the Terrapin basketball games.
THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE
I think most of us are familiar with the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. This tale traces its origins back to Aesop, a legendary slave and storyteller who supposedly lived in Ancient Greece from 620 to 564 B.C. We say supposedly because there is no written record of him until some three hundred years later. A collection of stories and fables that emerged over the years are attributed to him, but no one is certain whether they are really from him or not. (S3E24: ONCE UPON A TIME) Nevertheless, Aesop’s Fables have been passed down for centuries, and The Tortoise and the Hare is among the most well known.
The story is about a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise. The tortoise gets fed up with the hare’s taunting and challenges him to a race. When the race begins the hare charges ahead leaving the tortoise in the dust. The hare becomes so confident in his sure victory that he decides to stop and take a nap. However, upon awakening the hare discovers that the tortoise has passed him up and is crossing the finish line winning the race.
Aesop’s fables generally were attached to moral lessons. Among the lessons attributed to this story include the following:
slow and steady wins the race,
some people have great natural abilities, but they are ruined by poor decision making, and
that sobriety, zeal, and perseverance can prevail over indolence and laziness.
Numerous variations of the story have been crafted over time and applied to differing situations. In 1608 a Belgian artist and humorist named Otto van Veen encouraged lovers to, “hasten slowly.” In a painting he depicts Cupid pointing at the tortoise as it passes the sleeping hare. A note underneath proclaims, “Persistence Winneth.”
In the early 20th Century, an Anglo-Irish writer named Lord Dunsany relates a different take on the familiar story. In his version the hare realizes the stupidity of the challenge and refuses to proceed with the race. The tortoise plods on to the finish and is declared the winner by his supporters.
Then in 1992 an Indian writer named Vikram Seth reworked several fables in his publication called Beastly Tales. He claims that there is no moral value to be learned from either of the characters. “While the Tortoise's victory bolsters its joyless self-righteousness, the hare-brained loser is taken up by the media and pampered rotten while the tortoise was forgotten."
CECIL TURTLE
Well, I have to say that my favorite retelling of the Tortoise and the Hare comes from classic animated cartoons. This should come as no surprise.
In 1941 Warner Brothers introduced a cartoon titled Tortoise Beats Hare. The episode begins with the carrot crunching Bugs Bunny wandering in front of the title frame and then reading and mispronouncing the names of the writers and animators. When he reads the Tortoise Beats Hare title, he spits out his carrot, becomes enraged, and tears up the title card revealing a forest scene. In front of one tree is a mailbox with the name Cecil Turtle.
When a sleepy-eyed Cecil opens the door, Bugs bets him $10 that he could beat him in a race. “Ya got yourself a bet there, Speedy,” replies Cecil in his drowsy drawl. When the race begins Bugs is speeding across the countryside while Cecil steps into a Bell Turtlephone Booth and calls his cousin Chester Turtle. Cecil tells him about the bet, and to, “call the boys and give the rabbit the works.” Chester calls all the cousins who look just like Cecil, and they manage to show up at appropriate times to baffle the bunny. Bugs shows up at the finish line believing that he had won, only to see Cecil, or one of his lookalike cousins, calmly leaning against a tree across the line.
Two more Looney Tunes cartoons pair Cecil Tortoise against Bugs Bunny in Tortoise Wins By A Hare (1943) and Rabbit Transit (1947). In Tortoise Wins By A Hare, Bugs tries to learn the secret of Cecil’s speed by dressing up as an old man to interview him. (This was a take on an Old Timer character from the popular Fibber McGee and Molly radio show.) Cecil’s replies that the secret behind his speed is, “Clean livin, friend, clean livin.” Cecil Turtle only appeared in these three cartoons, but he is the only Looney Tunes character who managed to outwit Bugs Bunny each and every time.
Now in researching this I found an interesting side note to this part of the story. The first episode was created by that terrific and hilarious animator Tex Avery. Of course, here in the greater Cut-N-Shoot area we love anybody named Tex. But I especially love Tex Avery. The cartoons that he created are absolutely hilarious. About a month after Tortoise Beats Hare was released, Tex Avery and Warner Brothers had a falling out. The following year he was hired by MGM where he went on to have an incredibly successful career. And he created another popular sleepy-eyed character with a drowsy drawl named Droopy! That’s correct, Droopy Poodle is the successor of Cecil Turtle.
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TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
Well we can’t talk about animated turtles without bringing up that fearsome foursome, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 1983 two young artists named Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird got together in Dover, New Hampshire with the idea of collaborating on drawings for a potential comic book. One evening as a joke Eastman drew a picture of a masked turtle standing on its hind legs holding a set of num-chuks. He wrote “Ninja Turtle” on the top of the page. Laird laughed and then refined the drawing and added the words “Teenage Mutant” to the description. Not to be outdone, Eastman drew a team of four turtles, each armed with ninja style weapons.
According to Mental Floss, Eastman and Laird began fleshing out the Turtles to create a comic book, but they had to give the Turtles names. At first, they tried Japanese names, but it just wasn't working. So, they tried great Renaissance artists instead – Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. According to Laird, “It felt just quirky enough to fit the concept.”
They decided to make the TMNT as a kind of parody of the superhero comic books that were popular in the early 80s. The “Teenage” was inspired by the New Teen Titans, the “Mutant” from a comic called Uncanny X-Men, and the “Ninja” from the Marvel comic Daredevil. In fact, they borrowed heavily from Daredevil for the backstory as the turtles were altered by radioactive material. Their teacher or sensei “Splinter” is a play off the Daredevil sensei “Stick.”
In March 1984, Eastman and Laird created a new company, Mirage Studios, so named because there was no actual studio other than Laird’s living room. Then, Eastman used his $500 tax return, Laird emptied his bank account of $200, and they borrowed $1300 from Eastman’s uncle to print 3,000 copies of their first comic book, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. After printing costs, they had just enough money left to run an ad in Comics Buyer’s Guide Magazine, an industry publication. That ad caught the attention of enough comic buyers that the original run of 3,000 sold within a couple of weeks and more orders were coming in. Thus encouraged, they ran 6,000 more copies and sold them all by May of that same year. They earned enough to pay off Eastman’s uncle and split a profit of $200 each.
They felt like they were on to something, so they quickly went to work on a second issue. By January 1985, they completed issue #2 and quickly received orders for 15,000 copies, which was so successful that distributors demanded 30,000 reprints of #1, and even more of a second print of #2. These first comic books sold for $1.50 each, but if you want to purchase a TMNT #1 today it will cost about $4,000. Oh yeah, that first drawing that they did for a joke recently sold at auction for $71,000.
The original TMNT comic books were pretty violent. But when Eastman and Laird were approached about making a Saturday morning kids cartoon, they had to soften up the action and dialogue a bit. Rather than smashing villain’s heads with baseball bats while uttering some moderate profanity, the animated TMNT became pizza obsessed and shouted phrases like Turtle Power and Cowabunga Dude.
The original animated series ran on television from 1987 – 1996. Since then, four more TMNT animated series have run. In addition, the first TMNT movie was released in 1990 and earned more than $200 million worldwide. It was the fourth highest grossing movie of that year. Since then, six more movies have been made as well as a Broadway play. When you factor in the TV series, movies, plays, action figures and other toys, as well as the comic books which are still being produced, the TMNT have produced well over $2 billion in revenue. And it all started as a joke!
TOUCHE TURTLE
That’s great info about the TMNT but did you know that they were not the first animated crime fighting turtles? That distinction goes to the Hanna Barbara character Touché Turtle. Touché burst onto the television screen in 1962 along with his sidekick, a dimwitted sheepdog named Dum Dum. Touché was the brave, if not entirely competent, leader of the two brandishing his trusty sword and exclaiming his catchphrase "Touché away!" Touché was mighty handy with his sword and used it to fight against all the forces of evil that a turtle and sheepdog might encounter. While he was handy with his sword, he was terrible at pronouncing it as he always included the w and stretched the word into two syllables as in “sa-ward.” Touché was ahead of his time as he carried his telephone with him. A running gag in almost all the episodes was that the phone would ring at inopportune moments when someone called for help. Touché would politely excuse himself, duck into his shell, and take the call regardless of where he was at the time. Touché and Dum Dum didn’t have their own show, but were one of several Hanna Barbara cartoons featured on their Saturday morning program including Wally Gator, Quick Draw McGraw, Oggie Doggy and Doggy Daddy, and the Hillbilly Bears.
TURTLE LEFTOVERS
One other instance of a cartoon turtle is the evil turtle in The Amazing World of Gumball, one of my favorite recent cartoons. Starting out as a pet for Gumball and Darwin who really wanted a puppy, the evil turtle is based on the African softshell turtle which in some cultures is considered to be evil. That checks out as the character turns out to be both vicious and indestructible. It terrorizes Gumball’s entire family.
Let’s wrap up this episode with a couple of turtle myths. Along the coast of the fascinating island nation of Singapore there is a small island called Kusu which has an interesting myth attached to it. In the local dialect Kusu translates to Turtle, and looking at an overhead map, the island does resemble a turtle. It seems that once in ancient times two sailors found themselves in distress after their ship went down. Clinging to pieces of decking the two sailors feared that they were going to drown. Fortunately for them a kind turtle came along and turned itself into an island where they could take refuge. The following year the sailors returned to the island to honor and pay tribute to the island turtle. This became an annual tradition. Over the years Kusu Island has developed into a popular place of worship and meditation.
And for our final myth we travel to Africa. In African mythology the tortoise is deemed to be a most clever and wise animal. One myth details a tortoise named Ijapa. According to an article in medium.com Ijapa, through his cunning and wiles, went out and collected all the world’s wisdom. Returning home Ijapa decided to hide the world’s wisdom in the top of a palm tree. However, when he tried to climb the tree to deposit the wisdom he found that he couldn’t grip the trunk well enough to make it to the top. A snail happened by and told him to carry his bundle of wisdom on his back instead of his stomach and he would be able to grip the trunk better. Ijapa realized how futile his efforts were in possessing all the wisdom to himself when the snail had proven to be wiser than him. Ijapa then threw the bag containing all the wisdom down, releasing it back into the world.
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O U T R O |
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Remnant Stew is part of Rook & Raven Ventures and is created by me, Leah Lamp. Steve Meeker researches and writes each episode that we then host together. Our audio producer is Phillip Sinquefield. The Oddity Du Jour is brought to you by Sam Lamp. Theme music is by Kevin MacLeod with voiceover by Morgan Hughes. Special thanks goes out to Judy Meeker. For a complete list of sources for this episode please see this episode’s transcript, there’s a link in the show notes.
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Until next time remember to choose to be kind…AND ALWAYS STAY CURIOUS!
--SOURCES ----------------------
https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/turtle-and-tortoise
https://www.britannica.com/animal/turtle-reptile
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/07/23/how-long-do-turtles-live/10088727002/
https://listverse.com/2013/09/17/10-bizarre-turtle-species/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/world-turtle-cosmic-discworld
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop%27s_Fables
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcSsBuvu8PU
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch%C3%A9_Turtle_and_Dum_Dum
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/30862/complete-history-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tortoises-kusu-island-singapore
https://medium.com/@musespells/tortoises-turtles-in-mythology-ba0209f654e2
