Loggerheads: Not learning animals!

This is no ordinary loggerhead -- it is a research loggerhead.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains a sea turtle facility in Galveston where they raise turtles for testing in turtle exclusion devices. These devices are escape hatches for fish and turtles caught in shrimp nets. As new designs for TEDs are developed, they are tested by turtles rasied at this facility.

At the lab, the staff emphasizes that turtles are not learning animals. Does this have implications for their ability to do research??