Today on Who Knew Wednesday, we celebrated World Turtle Day!

The American Tortoise Rescue, a nonprofit organization established in World Turtle day in 1990 for the protection of all species of tortoise and turtles. The day was created as an annual observance to help people celebrate and protect turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats around the world.
Susan Tellem and Marshall Thompson, founders of ATR, advocate humane treatment of all animals, including reptiles. Since 1990, ATR has placed about 4,000 tortoises and turtles in caring homes.

You can check out the World Turtle Day website here!

Below is some information on the lovable sea creatures!

The Turtle Habitat:

  • Freshwater turtles live in ponds and lakes, and they climb out of the water onto logs or rocks to bask in the warm sun.
  • Tortoises are land animals. Their feet are round and stumpy, adapted for walking on land. They also dig burrows with their strong forelimbs, and slip underground when the sun gets too hot.
  • Turtles spend most of their lives in water. They are adapted for aquatic life, with webbed feet or flippers and a streamlined body. Sea turtles rarely leave the ocean, except to lay eggs in the sand.
  • Terrapins live on land and in water, usually in swamps, ponds, lakes and rivers.

Turtle Size:

  • The largest sea turtle species is the leatherback turtle. It weighs 600 to 1,500 lbs and is about 4.5 to 5.25 feet long.
  • The Galápagos tortoise grows up to 6 feet long and 573 lbs.
  • One of the smallest turtles is the speckled Cape tortoise. Its shell is 3.1 inches long. It weighs about 5 ounces.
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    This little buddy right here is a speckled cape tortise.

 

Body:

  • A turtle’s shell is a modified ribcage and part of its vertebral column.
  • The top part of the shell is called the carapace, and the bottom is called the plastron.
  • The shell is made up of about 60 bones that are covered by plates called scutes.
  • And the scutes are made of keratin, the same material that makes up humans’ fingernails.

Diet:

  • Most turtles are omnivores; they eat a variety of different things, depending on their species. Musk turtles eat mollusks, plants, small fish and insects. The cooter turtle is mostly vegetarian, and the green sea turtle only eats grasses and algae.
  • The alligator snapping turtle lures in fish with its tongue, which looks like a worm. It wiggles its tongue to attract a hungry fish and then snaps down on it with its strong jaw. It also eats aquatic plants, snakes, frogs, fish, worms, clams, crayfish and other turtles.

Other Facts:

  • Sometimes they cry, but not because they’re sad.
    Sea turtles have glands that help to empty excess salt from their eyes, making it appear as though they’re crying, but not to worry, they’re just doing some spring cleaning.
  • All tortoises are in fact turtles. They belong to the same class. But different families.
  • Tortoises and turtles are different in classification families. The major difference between the two is that tortoises dwell on land, while turtles live in the water some or nearly all of the time.