Tortoises being drawn to faces.

[nickolasanastasiou]

https://www.inverse.com/science/tortoise-face-recognition-study

I have not examined the actual study, but I have noticed this phenomenon for as long as I have kept tortoises, which is something like 33 years now. Kind of neat.

 

[Socratic Monologue]

That is interesting. I see this in our T.c. triunguis box turtles, too.

Of the herps I've kept, I've noticed something similar -- this staring at human heads, rather than at hands or torsos or just past the ear -- in a green iguana, and some dart frogs (R. imitator and R vanzolinii, but not in D. leucomelas). I've not seen it in any snakes I've kept, but I'm under the impression that most snakes are pretty cognitively unsophisticated.