Turtles and tortoises make noises to communicate and some ‘won’t stop chatting’

New research sheds light on sounds used by animals previously believed to be uncommunicative, Mustafa Qadri writes.

This groundbreaking discovery in turtles and tortoises is believed to date back 400 million years ago (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A groundbreaking study has found turtles and tortoises use noises to communicate and some "won't stop chatting".

Researchers conducted a study on 53 species that were believed to be uncommunicative, including tortoises, tuatara reptiles and lungfish - a freshwater vertebrate that can also breathe air - and found they made many different types of sounds as a form of acoustic communication.

Lead author of the Zurich University study, Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen, said that some of the turtles studied made “many different types of sounds” while others “wouldn’t stop chatting”. Turtles, tortoises and some of the other animals studied such as caecilians made a range of clicks, croaks, crackles and chirps.