POST
Evolve
Monday September 13th, 2010
Our San Francisco-based photographer Robert Houser gives us an ideal way to start the week, reminding us of the complexity of life.
These Galapagos tortoises, whose images Robert has posted on his blog, can be over 150 years old. Charles Darwin described these creatures in The Voyage of the Beagle, and spent much of his scientific career trying to explain why they had different traits on different islands.
Above you can see one of Robert’s photos of the tortoise screaming. Darwin explained the way in which this tortoise used its ability to vocalize:
During the breeding season, when the male and female are together, the male utters a hoarse roar or bellowing, which it is said, can be heard at the distance of more than a hundred yards. The female never uses her voice, and the male only at such times; so that when the people hear this noise, they know the two are together.
Like these tortoises, we can aspire towards a slow and steady conquest of the coming week. Darwin described their pace:
The tortoises, when moving towards any definite point, travel by night and day, and arrive at their journey’s end much sooner than would be expected. The inhabitants, from observations on marked individuals, consider that they can move a distance of about eight miles in two or three days. One large tortoise, which I watched, I found walked at the rate of sixty yards in ten minutes, that is 360 in the hour, or four miles a day,—allowing also a little time for it to eat on the road.
-Asad
