visitors from many different places...=)

The first turtle we analyzed was the box turtle. Turtles are water animals and tortoises are land animals. The box turtle however also lives on the land and does not have particularly webbed feet to help it swim through the water currents. This box turtle had a patterned shell, which was yellow and black but all in all the shell was rather plain as the turtle was a female. These box turtles are native to Florida.

Tortoise number two was a red foot tortoise native from South America. The flat belly showed us that it was a female as this is a specific feature adapted to the way these tortoises mate. The tortoise moved very slowly, which also gave us a clue it was not a water animal. Although the name suggests that the skin on the tortoise was red, it was actually more brown/grey. This tortoise is a vegetarian and therefore had a soft mouth.

The third turtle was the Central American Wood Turtle. This turtle was very active and seemed rather agitated. It had a pointed mouth, which is perfect for shredding the fish which it eats. Its shell was slightly raised and triangular in shape which would allow it to glide through a water current easily. In appearance this turtle was much brighter with orange and black eyes, and a brown with orange shell.

The Russian tortoise is a vegetarian and has a pointed mouth, perfect for shredding foliage. This tortoise also looks like it may be able to dig as his claws were also long and sharp. When we put him down on the table to look at him he also tried to dig into the wood. He was very heavy , ran very fast, had a yellow/brown shell, but the bottom was completely black.The mud turtle we looked at was only young and therefore very small in size. He had very webbed feet and a triangular shell to glide through water. His face looked completely different to the others as he had a more triangular and stream lined face and mouth. His bottom jaw was very pointed and this shows that he probably eats fish in the water. For camouflage the turtle was green with black spots on his belly. This turtle originates from North America.

The snake neck turtle we saw was a very interesting looking turtle. It lives in the water and is native to Australia. Its neck is very long and uses it to catch fish with since it lives in the water. It also had very webbed feet excellent for swimming and maneuvering its way in the water. It was also very fast so I imagine it is considered a predator in most environments in Australia

The soft shell turtle was also a water turtle, it is native to North America and can be seen in several environments throughout North America. It had a very small pointy little nose, very similar to a straw. It was also very small so it can fit in many places in ponds and lakes. It had a very soft shell which it also flexed and moved every once in a while. Like the snake neck turtle, it had webbed feet and a somewhat long neck but nowhere near the extension of the neck on the snake neck turtle.