Hello there many astonishingly good looking people and respectable pet owner in our humble article. Are you looking for good tips and guide on animal and pet care, looking for interesting animals guide and tips? If you are looking for the best animal care guide and facts, then you might love to read articles in our website here. Today, we are going to talk about reptile, especially tortoise. Today we are going to talk about desert tortoise and land tortoise, how to differentiate them, what makes them different and what we can learn from them. If you loves our article here and want to learn more about it, make sure to leave a like and opinion, and you might also want to check out our other articles while you are here.
First of all, what did you know about tortoise and turtle? Some people might confuse about the difference between tortoise and turtle. Tortoise, especially land tortoise is very different than turtle. Their main differences are their habitats, their anatomy, and their diets are different too. Tortoise is mostly terrestrial animals or land animals, while turtle are mostly aquatic animals. Terrestrial animals only need small amount of water to drink and wash them once in a while, but they don’t really need more water than that. In contrary, turtle really needs water in their lives. Turtle needs water to make sure their body is moist, and some turtle also get their foods from water. In fact some of land turtle could survive a month without water while turtle couldn’t even survive for more than weeks without water. From the physiology, there are also many differences between them. Tortoise tend to have longer necks and longer legs while turtle have small legs, stubby neck, and sea turtle have flipper as legs.
It is actually clear as days for the differences between tortoise and turtle. Now we move on on our main topic, what are differences between land tortoise and desert tortoise? Here are The Differences Between Desert Turtoise and Land Turtoise.
Main differences and how to differentiate between desert tortoise and land tortoise
First of all, many people are confusing between turtle and tortoise. Some people have a hard time differentiating between them, although if you know the differences, it is actually very easy and you can recognize it just by looking at them. The differences between turtle and tortoise are pretty clear.
- Differences between turtle and tortoise
Turtle is generally an aquatic reptile, while tortoise is generally a terrestrial reptile. Aquatic animal means that turtle will need a lot of water in their life as they need to wet their body, drinking, and they also need water to survive. You should provide turtle with lot of water in their habitat, preferably pond and aquarium. Tortoise however, they are terrestrial animals which means that they don’t really need lot of water in their lifespan. They only need water for drinking and wash their body from dirt. If you give too much water for tortoise, they will mostly get sick from too much water, and even can drown it. So keep it in mind when creating habitat for them.
Their body is also slightly different. Turtle have membrane in between their nails to help them move in water, and swim. Tortoise has stout and stubby legs that help them walk in land easily. Tortoises also tend to have a bigger shell and body than turtle. With this help, we hope you can easily differentiate between turtle and tortoise. Now then, to our next topic.
- Differences between desert tortoise and land tortoise
There are differences between desert tortoise and land tortoise. Desert tortoise is actually one of land tortoise. Desert tortoise is subspecies from different order of land tortoise. Desert tortoise is land tortoise native from desert of Nevada desert, South West of U.S.A, and north of mexico. Desert tortoise just like many other land tortoise have stout stubby body, long lifespan, mainly herbivore diets, and also expensive cost plus maintenance cost. The main differences between desert tortoise and land tortoise are actually quite subtle. One clear thing you should know about desert and land tortoise is that desert tortoise is definitely land tortoise while land tortoise might be or might not desert tortoise.
Desert tortoise have brownish shell, with speckles of black around its motive. They have hexagonal motive shell with mainly brownish and black color, but the motive and shape of their shells might different from one tortoise to another tortoise. Desert tortoise can live up for a long time even without water. They can survive in heat desert even without water for a very long time, that because they are already adapted to the heat of desert and very little amount of water in desert.
As for land tortoise, they have various shell motive and color depending on what type and their subspecies. Many different land tortoise have different motive, shell size and different physical appearances. Popular land tortoise kinds are sulcata tortoise, Russian tortoise, Indian star tortoise, red stripped tortoise and many more.
It might be hard for beginner reptile lovers to know the differences between desert tortoise and land tortoise as they have very similar physical appearances and you might don’t know their differences from the very first time. Luckily, there are many guide and tips for you to differentiate between them, so you won’t mistake between two of them. If you are unsure, you can always ask for guidance from expert tortoise owner or veterinary.
So, are you satisfied with our facts and guide on how you should differentiate between desert tortoise and land tortoise? So that’s it on our guide for The Differences Between Desert Turtoise and Land Turtoise. Hope it can help you to become the better pet owner, and become more responsible pet owner. If you think that our guide is not helpful enough, please leave your opinion about our article so we could adjust and improve in the future.