Tortoise Species

Tortoises are part of the amphibious reptile family.



They are mainly terrestrial though they can spend hours in the water too and tortoises have been known to be very reclusive animals. One of the most unique features of the tortoise happens to be the hard shell that nature has given these peace loving animals. These shells of the tortoise not only help to acts as their home but are also used to protect them from predators.



They come in sizes that vary from as small as a few centimetres up to 2 meters. Tortoises are known to be active during the daytime, that’s the reason they like to bask in the sunlight as much as possible. But even then they do have a tendency to change their behavior according to the environment around them.





Tortoises move very slowly and most of the times tend to park themselves in a quiet corner for long periods of time. They one of the few species on earth that have the longest life span, it is usually between 50 to 100 years though some have lived longer as per recordings of people. Though there are numerous tortoise species that are found all over the world most of them are not so common. But some of the most common tortoise species are the African Spur-thighed, the Leopard Star, Red-footed, Yellow-footed, Hermann's, marginated , Russian , Greek , Egyptian  and Hinged-backed. Though it is tough for a person to initially identify what tortoise species it is, there are a number of resources that is available to help you in tortoise species identification. This kind of information can be found with your local vet or you could also look for books and web pages that help you identify the species of the tortoise. Since they come in various sizes, size becomes a parameter for identification other than that traits like makings on the shell, the length of the limbs and the behaviour of the tortoise are other traits that can help you to identify tortoise species.

Tortoises can make novel pets. But it can be challenging and painstaking as these little docile reptiles need a lot of care and attention. Some of the species that are used as pets is the Russian tortoise and Hermann's tortoise. Unlike other pets, they are not able to respond to you but it will give you an immense pleasure to keep a tortoise and bring it up slowly.