You don’t get to be the slow creature in an Aesop’s fable for nothing.
Land tortoises are slow — many move at less than a mile an hour, and a desert tortoise can only reach 20 feet per minute on short sprints.
But why?
For one, Mental Floss informs us in this video, tortoises don’t need to step quickly because they’re herbivores — and plant life doesn’t run when you hunt it.
Check out the other reasons, explained in the clip. The tortoise can still take comfort in knowing that slow and steady wins the race, at least in storybooks.
