You've heard stories, no doubt, about animals that react to losing a mate with human-like emotion. But have you ever heard of a grieving reptile? Does cold blooded always mean heartless?
Say hello to Herb - a 350-pound endangered species with a tiny brain, a huge shell, loads of personality and a seemingly broken heart. Little more than a week ago, Herb was one of two giant green sea turtles in the Outer Bay wing of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif.Known officially as Turtle-1 and Turtle-2, unofficially they were Archie and Herb: The Good Turtle and The Bad.
Archie came to Monterey last year on long-term loan from an aquarium in New York and made a big splash with aquarium-goers who thrilled to see him glide past the window, waving his flippers like oars.
Herb arrived some months after Archie. Steve Brorsen, an aquarist, who would get to know the turtles as well as one species can know another, wasn't sure what to expect.
"I didn't know if they'd even notice each other," he said. But in a million-gallon tank full of tuna and sharks, Herb zoomed in on Archie.
"Pretty soon, I swear," Brorsen said grinning, "I'd see them sitting at the bottom together with their flippers over each other's shells."
The turtles made quite a pair, cruising the tank like synchronized swimmers, taking naps together on the bottom and stealing the tunas' food. Archie loved to eat. He'd do anything for a fish taco: Lettuce with a chunk of squid.
Herb liked to do, um, other things, enough to raise doubts about, well, Archie's gender. He even made passes, so to speak, at the Mola - a big, flat fish that may look like a turtle, but seemed genuinely insulted by Herb's suggestion.
"We put Herb in the holding tank to make him leave the Mola alone," Brorsen said. "When he got out, he made a beeline for Archie."
Turtles are inquisitive creatures, fascinated by underwater ledges and caves. It was that, said Brorsen - their curiosity - that got them into trouble recently.
"We came in that morning and could see only one turtle in the tank, so we suited up and dived down to find him."
Repair work on the tank had loosened a grate that proved irresistible to the turtles. A time-lapse video shows how they moved the grate with their flippers, then wedged themselves into the opening. Herb escaped. Archie didn't.
"We did turtle CPR on Archie for almost two hours," Brorsen said. "When he began breathing on his own, you should've heard us cheer."
But two days later, Archie died. And Herb, who wasn't injured, seemed a bit strange.
"He wouldn't eat for a couple of days," Brorsen said. "And he spent a lot of time at the bottom of the tank near where we found Ar-chie."
On this day, however, one week after the accident, Herb seems fine, gulping fish tacos and gliding about the tank with his usual seamless grace.
In a moment, Brorsen and another diver will rub Herb's shell until the turtle is limp with pleasure. Then they'll steer him into a holding tank until repairs are completed.
"Who knows?" Brorsen says studying Herb. "Maybe it's my imagination. But I still think he misses Archie."