Turtles, Running
How does a turtle run? Easier shown than told. From hatchling sprints to a grown-up's march.
Loggerhead hatchling sprinting to the sea
A freshly hatched loggerhead races across a shell-strewn beach on Sanibel Island, Florida. Where does a body that small keep this much engine? In the encyclopedia →
Video: Jean-Lou Justine, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Leatherback hatchling's first dash
The world's largest turtle starts out this size, rowing across the sand on flippers. Adults grow to nearly two meters. In the encyclopedia →
Video: Tyler Karaszewski, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
A diamondback terrapin on the march
And here is a grown turtle at full stride: a diamondback terrapin powering through a US salt marsh. Quicker than you expected, right? In the encyclopedia →
Video: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (NCTC), Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
So — are turtles actually fast?
Tortoises typically walk at around 0.2–0.5 km/h. But Bertie, a leopard tortoise and Guinness World Record holder, clocked 0.28 meters per second — roughly 1 km/h — to become the fastest tortoise on record.
In the water it's another story: sea turtles cruise slowly but are said to hit bursts of around 30 km/h when startled. The tortoise-and-hare race may simply have been held on the wrong surface.
