Turtle, Terrapin, Tortoise
The order Chelonia comprises the shelled reptiles, turtles, tortoises and terrapins: they can boast ancestors which roamed the earth as long ago as two million years. Their lifespan can be as long as 100 years in captivity and stories abound as to the longevity of individual specimens. Alas, however, nobody has been around long enough to vouch for their authenticity.
It is as well to clariy what we mean by giving the three groups of chelonians separate comon names. Tortoises are land animals known in parts of America as land turtles: terrapins are freshhwater creatures, and turtles are marine. These last are quite unsuitable for private collections owing to the large size which they attain. In fact it is a matter of some debate whether chelonians should be available in the pet trade at all as so many of them die during shipment from their native lands.
Tortoises and terrapins look similar,and both originate from warm climates. As reptiles they are unable to control their body temperature, depending entirely on the warmth of their surroundings for the ability to move, eat and grow, and the proverbial slow, pet tortoise can in fact move quickly in its native climate. It belongs to hot, dry lands such as North Africa and Greece and is mainly vegetarian. Many of the terrapins on the other hand come from hot, wet tropical marshes, ponds and river banks where they live in and out of the water, swimming and feeding on snails, frogs, aworms and fish. The tortoise cannot live the life of a terrapin nor a terrapin the life of a torroise, so it is essential to be able to distinguish the terrapin with its rather flat shell and its “webbed feet” from the land tortoise with its domed and deeply pattered shell.
It is not easy to breed hese reptiles in cold temprate regions, but one wishes that the practice were more common in that those imported from other lands frequently arrive in an unsatisfactory conditon often haveing been packed one on top of other in boxes.