Normal Alertness

The psychological and behavioral effects caused by a captive environment will now be examined. According to Warwick (1995), normal behaviors in turtles include regularly basking, feeding, social interactions, and swimming. When these normal behaviors become infrequent or overly done, the environment may be the cause. There are numerous signs of psychological comfort in turtles such as normal alertness, relaxed resting states, and normal body movements. Normal alertness is when a turtle has interests in changes in the environment but is not so alert that they are in a defensive state. An example of normal alertness could be a turtle noticing an unfamiliar noise or their keeper coming into the room. An example of a relaxed resting state would

Occasional hiding of the limbs can be considered normal behavior but if a turtle has prolonged retraction of the head and arms it is considered abnormal. Retraction of the limbs when around humans or other animals is also considered a sign of psychological discomfort. An example of a defensive posture in turtles is having an open mouth stance. Irregular breathing could be hyperventilating or labored breathing. A study done by Warwick (1990) evaluates reptiles in captivity for abnormal behaviors. The subjects of the study consisted of over 4000 captive reptiles from zoos and homes. The methods of the study were based on observation and experiments over a 12 year time span. The researcher’s study found that some problematic behaviors were common amongst the captive reptiles. One problem shown in some of the captive reptiles was hyperactivity. Hyperactivity in turtles is characterized by excessive swimming and redundancy of activities. An example of a redundancy of activity would be repeatedly swimming into a wall. Hyperactive behaviors were largely associated with transparent and/or small enclosures. Hypoactivity was another problem shown in some of the captive