TV brings turtle out of her shell

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-7-23  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CHINA'S evening TV news program has an unusual fan - a turtle who seems to be crazy about the anchorman's voice.

Whenever the pet turtle, raised by a citizen in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, hears CCTV's 7pm News broadcast begin, she climbs out of her bathtub and focuses her attention on the television, the Chongqing Evening News reported.

"Every time she hears the anchorman's voice from the newscast, she would stop whatever she had been busy with and stretch her head from the shell immediately," owner Liu Jie said.

Liu bought the animal for 8 yuan (US$1.2) last year. She happened to discover the turtle's keen interest in watching the news when Liu's mother was watching TV with the turtle beside her. She was then given the nickname "Dr Turtle," according to the paper. "Dr Turtle seems to care for the anchorwoman much less than the anchorman, and she shows little interest in soap operas or other programs."

The paper said Liu bought another turtle as a playmate for Dr Turtle in May and now they always watch the news together.

Tu Jing, the reporter with the paper, told Xinhua news agency she went to visit Dr Turtle on Sunday. The turtles stopped playing with each other and became quiet as the afternoon news started. When Dr Turtle heard the voice of the anchorman, she slowly climbed up on to the shell of the other to watch the program, Tu said.

The paper also published a photo of the turtle clinging to the bathtub, facing TV.

A netizen called "fangjunbmw" said at zhidao.baidu.com, a popular online forum, his pet turtle also liked watching TV programs and they usually held their interest for about 10 minutes.

Officials at the Chengdu Institute of Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Kunming Institute of Zoology told Xinhua they had no research on such a phenomena and had no idea why turtles would like to watch TV.