Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-06-10
TURTLES CAN LEARN.


From Ninety Minutes to Three.
That the man forms the habit and
the habit forms the man we are all
more or less aware. Whether this is
equally true of the lower order of
creatures is at present an open ques-
ton. though an interesting series of
experiments with small turtles, which
las recently been conducted by scien-
tific men, has in some degree estab-
lished the fact that in this respect the
lower creation does not widely differ
from men.
Turtles habits, like mems, are de-
veloped from the repetition of an act.
They are performed automatically;
hence, after many generations these
habits become what we call instincts.
The simplicity and slowness of the
turtle made it an admirable subject
for the experiments in question which
consisted of placing the creature at
one end of a labyrinth and leaving it
to find it's way to it's nest at the other.
Three motives combined to make
The turtle try to find it's way to the
lest-namely the natural desire to
tide in some dark secluded place, the
impulse to escape from confinement
ind the desire to get to place of COM
ort
On the first occasion the turtle took
IN hour and thirty-one minutes to find
he nest but reduced the time at eacn
tempt until only fifteen minutes
1ere occupied on the fifth journey to
he nest.
In spite of this it's wanderings on
he first three occasions were appar-
ntIy a series of aimless confusions.
After that, however, they became
teadily more and more direct.
In all no fewer than fifty of these
experiments were made. The tenth
rip was made in four minutes and five
seconds, with only a couple of mis-
axes in turning
The time of the twentieth journey
was four minutes, of the thirtieth
three minutes and twenty seconds,
the course taken being almost direct,
and Of the f1ftieth trip four minutes
exactly.
This, when you come to think of it,
was pretty quick work, and SO the
learned scientists thought who watch
ed the unconscious turtles progress
day by day.
When. in the early stages, the ami
NAL stopped and hesitated in his wan
behring's, he was, according to some
members of his scientific audience,
thinking about his environmental
,conditions;" but, according to others,
he was. merely stopping to get sen
sorry data"-that is to say, to look and
smell.
The blind alleys worried the poor
turtle tremendously at first, as did
the incline, though, after achieving
the thirtieth trip, he got into the
habit of saving time by dropping
over the side of the latter instead of
walking all the way down it.
This action is an illustration Of the
way in which an advantageous habit
lay grow by accretion, as it We're,
it'll it seems as if it must have been
result of reasoning.
Yet had the turtle in the original
stance stopped to judge and draw
ferences as to the way to escape,
stead of persistently moving from
ace to place, it would probably have
sslnained in the pen an indefinite
period.
AS it was the wandering impulse
led by chance to the animal finding
the acme of turtle pleasure-its nest.
The satisfaction thus received was
impressed on the turtles vital mechan-
ism, so that there was a tendency (the
beginning of a habit toward repetl-
tion of it,"
The turtle happened to crawl over
the edge of the incline on the thirtieth
trip and, finding that this harmless
process enabled it to reach its nest
quicker, continued the act, thus form
ing habit.
Thus by the aid of such humble
creatures as turtles we may learn
something of interest having a bear
ng on human habits and reason.-Lon-
lon Express.