Hello there respectable readers, responsible pet owner, and our beloved viewers. For people that are first time visiting our website, we are website dedicated for animal lovers from all around the world. We provide the best and reliable sources for animal tips, guide, animal interesting facts, and many animal care guides. We provide as much animal care tips as we can, covering animal from popular cats and dogs, exotic animal such as lizard, turtle, reptiles and snake, and pasture animals. We strive to help anyone who seeks to become the best owner for their pets or people who are looking to become pet owner itself. So here we are. Today, we are going to give you the article that talks about turtle and tortoise.
Tortoise is a reptile animal, which means they have characteristics like cold blooded animal, scale that covers their entire body, and claws on their feet. Turtle however is different from other species of reptile such as lizard and snake as they have unique characteristic and that is their shells. They have shells that function as their shelters and their home. Their body is composed of hard shells with legs and head sprouting from its shells. In danger, they can pull in their legs and head in their hard shells to cover their soft spot. Turtle and tortoise also comes in many types and subspecies from sea turtle like green turtle and leatherback turtle, and then there are land tortoise like red footed tortoise, desert tortoise, Indian star tortoise and Russian tortoise. Turtle and tortoise mainly live in warm climate area like Indian Ocean, South East Asian, Central America and many other tropical countries. However, turtle we are going to talk about in this article actually live in the cold area, even considered as the coldest region in the earth.
The turtle we are going to talk about comes from Russia, the cold region north of Asian continent, and east of Europe. This country is considered as one of the coldest country in the world except for north and South Pole. What make this tiny species of turtle from Russia unique is that it can survive in harsh environment of Russia and cold weather of Russia. Now we will introduce you with The Mini Turtles Species in Russia.
What makes this tiny turtle unique and different from any other turtle species?
Agrionemys Horsfieldii or people called it as Russian tortoise are a species of land tortoise that comes from central Asian and some part of Russian. They are land tortoise that have adapted to harsh weather and climate in this barren steppe region. This turtle is endemic to some part of central Asia and considered as threatened and endangered animal in some countries. Even though they are considered as endangered species by some countries, this turtle species is actually quite popular as house pet. Many countries are still considered this turtle not really endangered and allowed the distribution of Russian tortoise as house pet. As long as you know your country permit it, and you have permission it is fine to keep it as pet. Just make sure you don’t abuse it.
This turtle is considered as small species of turtle with adult males could only grow for around 13 to 25 cm, while the female is generally larger around 15 to 25 cm. It is actually normal for female to become larger in the world of reptile due their body need to grow bigger to accommodate eggs for their reproduction. Average house Russian turtle could grow around 15 to 24 cm, and if taken care well they could reach for larger size. They’re herbivore so their main diet consist of vegetables like lettuce and plantains.
Just like any other turtle and tortoise, Russian turtle have very long lifespan with average lifespan of 40 years and they could reach until 50 to 60 years in captivity if taken care right. This long lifespan could be burden for some people, since longer lifespan means that you will spend more money for longer lifespan. If you have money and efforts to take care of Russian tortoise, they could be long lasting pet that everyone loves and it is also considered exotic to keep long living tortoise.
There are some differences between male Russian turtle and female Russian turtle. Male turtle tend to have longer tails tucked in the side of their shells, longer claws in their legs, and females have shorter tails and claws. The male cloaca is shaped like slit vent located on tips of their tails and female have asterisk shaped vent for their cloaca. For those who doesn’t know, cloaca is anus for certain kinds of reptile especially turtle.
- Facts you need to know about Russian Turtle
Some interesting facts about Russian turtle is about their mating habit and their habit to hibernate during winter. During their mating habits, male will occasionally bite female tails and forelegs and if female accept their proposal, male will hump female on their backs and let out weird high-pitcher shrieking and squeaking noises.
During winter time, The Mini Turtles Species in Russia will enter state of hibernation in which they will enter long lasting sleep and lethargic state. They will sleep for a very long time until the weather and climate becoming warmer again. Responsible pet owner will need to provide warm shelter for their Russian turtle to sleep, and provides anything that turtle will need during their hibernation phase like foods and drinks before they goes to sleep. Hibernation state occur mostly every winter for turtle, but some of house Russian turtle could also sometime pass wintertime without any hibernation at all. Make a proper preparation if your Russian turtle is going to hibernate.
All right, that’s all rounded reviews and description of tiny Russian turtle. Russian turtle is unique turtle in which they are small sized turtle, cute and they also have unique habits of mating and hibernating. Their habits of hibernating come from adaptation of cold weather and it is developed for millennia from their ancestors.