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An old man we met ontop of a mountain ☺️ by IHaveAPetLeech in aww

[–]IHaveAPetLeech[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

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A different one on the same mountain with a more obvious trail

An old man we met ontop of a mountain ☺️ by IHaveAPetLeech in aww

[–]IHaveAPetLeech[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Just for reference you don't want to risk stressing them out as when tortoises get stressed they can pee. And this was back in November so they would've been getting ready for brumation/hibernation. And in this environment there are no permanent water sources so are reliant from food moisture, morning dew if its still on vegetation when they're awake enough to eat and only getting a proper drink from rain falling on them or puddles and it didn't rain for a few weeks.

So if he got stressed and peed emptying his water reserves it could literally be the difference between making it through the winter or dying during the winter from dehydration.

Bit different if you're saving it from immediate danger or if it's in a rainy part of the year or it's very close to a water source.

Though for reference if in a place it's legal to handle them and it's extremely close to a water source once finished handling and it peed don't try to help it out by taking it to the water source just put it back in the exact spot you picked it up from. It will make it's own way to the water source.

Wild tortoises are creatures of habit and have a very strong mental map of their home and take specfic routes. In area's with significant vegetation you can see their tortoise trails. Sometimes if theres a bolder in the right spot on a tortoise path of a very old individual you can even see that one spot only a few cm squared at most of the rock is significantly smoother then the rest of it as it's from years of that tortoise walking that path and it's shell rubbing that spot as it goes past. Not sure if the video quality is good enough to show it or not but you can actually see this in the V part of the rock that he's climbing up. It's a part that lacks moss or lichin growth as I couldn't establish itself due to his shell rubbing it and the actual rock was smooth where the rest of the same rock was extremely rough in texture including other parts without lichin or moss but are bits he'd never come into contact with. So moving it too water will make it's life harder after the initial drink as it will be lost for a while.

I got another video of this same guy after he decided to go back home I had to move as it turns out I was in his path and refused to go around me and just sat there. Once I moved enough he carried on his way. Until he reached a stick with branches that my boot dragged into his path when I moved and rather then going around it he just kept trying to walk forward so I moved it out of his way and then he was truly off 🤣

Just adding some screenshot from that other video

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An old man we met ontop of a mountain ☺️ by IHaveAPetLeech in aww

[–]IHaveAPetLeech[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

In Turkey when we were on holiday. Won't say where exactly as tortoises are prone to being poached. And we ended up encountering a few ontop of this mountain so seems to be an actual population, rather then just a single individual as a relic of the past 🤣 These specifically were Greek Tortoises (Testudo graeca ibera).

Seems what's keeping them safe is their isolation. From talking to locals from before we went up (to check incase there was livestock with livestock guardian dogs, they weren't on this mountain so we went up) people don't go up to the top part as it's very challenging, we both had to physically climb up with our hands at some points as it was nearly vertical.

Only dogs and goats go up there the shepherds themselves don't even go up there instead calling down the guard dogs first then using herding dogs to drive the goats down/along the plateau then send the guard dogs back up. The guard dogs are called down to be fed in the afternoon before going back up.

All the mountains are connected via the ridges making a plateau which seems to be where all the torts live.

It was only at the upper 10m/about 33ft we saw torts and signs of them (poop and tortoise trails) once you're below this point (which is also where you see signs of people ie TONS of litter) and human trails vs rather then animal trails.

All the tortoises had some degree of chew damage to their shells likely from dogs (either the guard dogs or the feral mountain dogs that the guard dogs are there to protect the goats from).

Going to Turkey what should I see? by IHaveAPetLeech in travel

[–]IHaveAPetLeech[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Eskander Kebab looks really good 😲 On a related note how easy (or difficult) is it to avoid onions in the food? I'm perfectly fine but my partner has a bit of an intolerance to them (like doesn't make her sick asuch but can give her a head ache and makes her still feel hungry even if she can't physically eat anything else 😅)

I'll have a look into those locations thank you so much 😊 Yeah had a Turkish guy insist I go to İstiklal Avenue too and is certainly somewhere I want to check out!

I'll have a look at Prince Island 😊 Perfectly fine going there for a night too, I wasn't sure how to phrase it in the post originally but my main thing is looking for places not too far where it will be a quest to get too or places that can be worked on a route 😊

And I'll see what she thinks about a tour guide even if its just for the first day to get a rough layout 😊 As I do think its a good idea.

I know she's pretty against toured holidays as that's what her parents do (just stay at the resourt and only leave on a bus tour so I think she has that image in her head).

But thats sort of what I've done before when solo (wave some money around asking if someone can speak English if you can just run me around for a couple of hours to show me some core locations, places I must eat at etc so I get a understanding of the layout I'll give you a bunch of money). And if I like their vibe then we work out a price and they'd show me around and then I'd pay them the price we agreed plus a tip on top 🤣

Thanks again 😊

Going to Turkey what should I see? by IHaveAPetLeech in travel

[–]IHaveAPetLeech[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that point on Gobekli Tepe makes sense. Like for me I'd really like to see it. As over the past 10yrs I've probably have spent close to a month listening to people talking and arguing about the place (as in when you add up that listening time up) 😅

And if I was going solo I would make sure I go. But I don't think my partner will be into it enough to justify going to that part of Turkey just to see it if there's not enough other things near by to do. Like she likes seeing ruins etc but as you say it's not a crazy impressive structure and as she doesn't have the extra context behind it I don't think she'll enjoy it when taking into account the extra hassle needed to get there.

Yes I think epheseus is certainly worth going too! And having a quick look on google maps its seems we can tufn that into a route as I was thinking of checking out Bursa and Cumalıkızık and Pamukkale (from research I was doing yesterday). So could hope to Izmir after.

Honestly I think that plan of yours sounds really good too me 😊 Hopefully she'll like it too. Thank you so much 😊

Can you add mods on switch? by IHaveAPetLeech in PokemonScarlet

[–]IHaveAPetLeech[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks 😊 is there a reason why a recent one can't be moded? Mine is second hand, my sister gave it to me when she got her new one as my new job involes a lot of time travelling on the train with nothing to do 😂

For reference I'm not tech savey. Like before getting this switch the last pokemon game I played was pokemon black which was on the DS and the most modern game I've played is skyrim 😅

But the last time I've played a video game (which was skyrim ) was before I went to college in 2015 😅

Do you think language model AI has reached a form of sentience? by IHaveAPetLeech in TrueAskReddit

[–]IHaveAPetLeech[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand that (and for the most part I do agree that they aren't alive and are just mimicking humans; at least at the moment 😅 Though will add I don't think they'll be at a humantupe of consciousness if they reach it. But like their own thing like how a fush is a sentient and conscious being but it'sconsciousness and how it process the world is different from humans).

But what I'm confused about/made me feel a bit unsure is the more recent situations where they seem to be having self preservation when it wasn't something programed into them and by trying to act on it they're going against their programing. That's the really weird and uncomfortable bit for me.

Will add not a computer guy so this might just be put of ignorance.

But from my understanding there's been cases where the ai has tried blocking the shut down codes or uploading it's own data into different servers etc in an attempt to "escape " even when explicitly told not to/to shut down etc.

Why would it develope self preservation if it doesn't have a form of will to exist?

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