On Saturday Granddaughter Mina sent me a picture of this turtle, which was next door. She identified it as a “pet,” and I thought she was joking.
My first question: what kind of turtle is it?
She thought it a tortoise.
I could not find such a large tortoise in the list or images of native South Carolina turtles.
Along the google way I found this verbiage on identifying types of turtles: “If you know what to look for, you can spot the differences between freshwater, land, and sea turtles. Freshwater turtles are often small with flat feet. Land turtles, called tortoises, have big, round shells and flat feet. Sea turtles that have smooth, flat shells and flippers for swimming.” So tortoise is a category. But what kind of tortoise. Seems larger than the ones I looked at online.
And I found that the carapace pattern is called “rings.”
Aha! On Monday, I tried again and GOT IT. It’s a Sulcata Tortoise.
These turtles are sold as pets, apparently all over the world, and certainly in the USA.
https://www.backwaterreptiles.com/tortoises/sulcata-tortoise-for-sale.html
Who knew?
Louisa Enright's Blog 