Tortoise at Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida

Tortoise

December 22, 2010

I can recall reading the story of the tortoise and the hare during my earlier childhood years.  Back then I understood that a tortoise was a type of turtle or so I thought when I was young when my only dealings with turtles was the one in the aquarium in my classroom and the dealings we had with the snapping turtle.  There is a difference even though both critters are in the Testudinidae family.  A turtle has a flatter, steamlined shell because it is a water dwelling Sauropsida.  Tortoises are turtles  in the Testudinidae family but in the Class Reptilia,  They have a higher, dome shaped shell because tortoises dwell on land.  Tortoises unlike turtles are not kept as pets.  They have a live span of 80 to 150 years, almost five times that of a turtle.  Suffice to say they are both slow moving critters hence the moral behind the tortoise and the hare. 

Pictured is one of the smaller tortoises at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida.  This was a rather small one compared to the size of some of the older ones.  No wonder they move so slow carrying that heavy house on their back!

Garden Gnome