Turtles

Turtle Tracks

Photo courtesy of Mark Seaver.

Natural History of Turtles

Turtles are fascinating animals that carry their homes around on their backs. They have a hard shell, called a carapace, that encloses all their internal organs. Tortoises are turtles that retract their heads into their shells by pulling their neck into an S-shaped curve. Some turtles hide their heads by bending their necks sideways.

Turtles vary in size. Small North American box turtles can be six inches long, while the huge leatherback sea turtles can reach eight feet in length.

Turtles do not have teeth. While some turtles are vegetarians, most are omnivorous.

Turtles lay their eggs in sand or dirt. A few turtles live a long time, some reaching 100 years. The eggs are leathery, rather than hard like bird eggs.

Some pond turtles have webbed feet. One of the largest pond turtles in the world is the alligator snapping turtle. It can get up to 200 pounds.

Look for turtle tracks near water. The best time to look for them is the summer or fall. Females come out of the water to lay their eggs in late spring or early summer. They did a hole in soft sand to deposit the eggs in. Some land-dwelling turtles will dig burrows.

Sometimes the tail or shell will leave drag marks in the trail. The tracks are almost oval in shape with the toes showing on one side of the oval. There are five toes.

Personal Notes on Turtles

 

Find turtle posters, greeting cards, t-shirts, hats, and more in my new store.

Now available: "Animals Don't Cover Their Tracks - An Introduction to Animal Tracking" on CD! (Version 3.0) New drawings, more species, more photos, more extensive sections on tracking humans, more detailed directions for plaster casting, mystery tracks section, tracking stories section, and more. The CD features over 100 species, including special bonus sections with the tracks of some African and Australian animals. A large section on tracking lost people for search and rescue is included, with over four pages of photos showing the details of tracks and signs people leave. Easy to use format. This web site is limited by bandwidth, but the CD-ROM is not. The CD is available in my online store at: www.dirt-time.com  Works with Mac or PC. Happy tracking!!

What else can you find in the nature store? Beartracker's animal tracks coloring book, T-shirts, sweatshirts, journals, book bags, toddler and infant apparel, mouse pads, posters, postcards, coffee mugs, travel mugs, clocks, Frisbees, bumper stickers, hats, stickers, and many more items. All with tracks or paw  prints, or nature scenes. Custom products are available. If you don't see the track you want on the product you want, email me and I can probably create it. Proceeds from all sales go to pay the monthly fees for this web site. You can help support this site as well as get great tracking products! Thank you!

 

Find other tracking products: www.zazzle.com/tracker8459*

 

Also visit these fine stores for more products of interest:

NDN Pride shop - For Indian Pride items for all tribes. Custom items available on request.

ASL Signs of Love - For anyone who uses or is learning ASL, American Sign Language. Custom name items and more are available here.

Sales from all stores give commissions to Beartracker's Animal Tracks Den, which helps keep this site online as a free service. We are celebrating ten years online this year!

 

prints prints

Got a turtle story? E-mail me and tell me about it.

tracker@humboldt.net

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Copyright © 1997-2008. Text and drawings by Kim A. Cabrera