In The Sounds of Life, Karen BakkerBakker, Karen. 2024. The Sounds of Life. Princeton University Press. tells tales of turtles speaking to each other. Scientific researchers long believed that turtles don’t make sounds, but a few intrepid PhD researchers set out to prove otherwise.
What they found was amazing. For example, received scientific wisdom was that turtles abandon their eggs after laying them. Not only is this not true, mother turtles wait in the waters off the beach for their hatchlings and make specific noises to call to them. But also, incredibly, the baby turtles make noise before they hatch. Bakker writes,
Researchers have yet to provide a difinitive answer, but the most likely answer is that the yet-to-be-hatched turtles are sharing their readiness to break out of their eggs, in order to coordinate a time to hatch ... synchronizing their departure from the nest makes each individual hatchling less vulnerable to predators. (p72-73)
One of the reasons it took so long to recognise turtle communication is because they don’t vocalise loudly, their sounds are subtle and quiet.
...they leave relatively long pauses between one sound and the next, and might wait minutes or even hours before replying to one another. (pg 66)
I love these turtles (podocnemis expansa) for many reasons, not least because they exemplify the impoverished view human supremacy puts on the world. I also think about them a lot as a researcher.
First, on an epistemological scale, to always remain open to surprise. How little we know of the world and of each other. Second, methodologically, on how to be a polite interlocutor. Imagine a conversation where you wait 10, 15, 20 seconds, even a minute, before responding? Can we try to really listen to those with whom we speak?
I highly recommend reading the whole book, there are stories of whale song, reef lullabies, bat banter and more. For a shorter version, you can also listen to A hidden world of sound, from the Many Minds podcast.