Giant tortoises prove they have turtle recall
Former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez made an unusual detour yesterday on her way back to power as vice president, appearing in court to defend herself against corruption charges stemming from her time in office.
The former leader, who becomes vice president in eight days, is charged with heading a criminal association that defrauded the government by illegally granting public works projects in the southern province on Santa Cruz during her 2007-2015 presidency.
Fernandez angrily denounced the accusations as political persecution and blamed the outgoing administration of President Mauricio Macri. The ex-president at times shouted during yesterday’s hearing, which lasted four hours.
‘‘History has absolved me, and history is going to absolve me,’’ she told the three judges. ‘‘History will condemn you.’’
She told the judges that she was not going to answer questions because ‘‘it is you who have to answer questions.’’
Fernandez will be vice president under President-elect Alberto Fernandez, who takes office December 10 after beating Macri in October 27 elections.
Fernandez is accused of heading of an illegal association that improperly awarded 51 public works contracts to the construction company led businessman Lazaro Baez.
Among the defendants are former Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido, former Public Works Secretary Jose Lopez and ex-officials with the national roads agency.
The ex-president also faces four other legal processes for alleged crimes committed during her presidency whose start dates have not been set and five detention requests that have stalled because as a senator she has immunity from arrest, though not from prosecution. –AP
Early visitors to the Galapagos were amused, but unimpressed, by the giant tortoises. They considered the lumbering beasts to be ‘‘living rocks’’ that roamed aimlessly and pointlessly – and whose main redeeming quality was their tastiness when fried.
Now a study has suggested a lot more was going on in the minds of these sluggish animals, who can not only be trained to perform tasks but also remember their training unprompted almost a decade later.
Ten years ago scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology taught a group of captive tortoises to bite on the end of a stick in return for food. They showed the reptiles were able to choose the right stick when another stick was also presented, and also when the only difference between the sticks was the colour.
The researchers did this, they said, in part because of the unfair reputation the animals have for stupidity. ‘‘Until recently, reptiles were often regarded as reflex machines, incapable of more complex behaviours, reduced to a footnote in the evolution of learning and intelligence,’’ they wrote in the journal Animal Cognition.
It was only when the scientists came back to test them again that they realised just how wrong this idea was. The team went to the
Giant tortoises appear to be the elephants of the reptile world, with a memory that matches their extremely long lifespan.
enclosure at Vienna zoo, that housed three of the same animals tested previously, and found that they remembered the rules of the game they were taught years earlier.
‘‘Remarkably, animals that were tested nine years after the initial training still retained [their abilities],’’ they wrote. The tortoises appeared to be the elephants of the reptile world, with a memory that matched their extremely long lifespan.
The findings would certainly have been a surprise to the first westerners to see the animals. Much of their popularity among sailors stemmed from the fact they could be stored alive in the
hold of ships for months at a time, keeping their meat fresh.
However, there were hints even then in the more observant visitors that there was something more special about the animals. Darwin noted they could cover many miles in a day, navigating the island from sleeping ground to feeding ground to watering hole.
The researchers said it was time to formalise the observations made by Darwin and rehabilitate the maligned giant tortoise. ‘‘Our study is a first step towards a wider appreciation of the cognitive abilities of these unique animals,’’ they said. – The Times