Chapter 6
The family learned so much about turtles that summer.
Did you know that turtles do not have ears that hang off the side of their heads like people and dogs? Their ears are flat sheets of skin that lay across the sides of their heads. They hear sounds very well but probably not the same way that people hear sounds.
Turtles do not have teeth. They have a beak and the beak may have small ridges that look like tiny teeth. Turtles have a strong bite for tearing into plant food or biting into insects and worms. Turtles do not chew their food. They pull their food into their mouths with their tongue and swallow it whole.
Turtles have thick leathery skin and each foot has long and sharp claws. The skin is scaly but soft. The claws are used for digging in the dirt to find food, lay eggs or to burrow into the ground. The leathery skin is water proof but not as colorful as the shell.
The most interesting part of the turtle is its shell. It is made of two parts. The upper part is the more colorful of the shell. It is made of many plates and each plate has rings that appear as the animal grows larger. If you count the number of rings in a plate, you will then have a good idea of the age of the turtle. A new ring grows every year.
The lower shell has two hinges at the front and the back end of the animal. The hinges allow the turtle to pull its body into the shell and then close the front and back end of the shell to form a box. The children saw this happen many times. When a turtle was startled or unsure of things, it would pull its legs, head and tail into the upper shell and then pull the lower shell closed tight against the upper shell. This way, the soft parts of the animal were safe from harm.
The male and female turtles are hard to tell apart. But Dad learned that the male turtles have red eyes and the females have orange colored eyes. This must be how the turtles can tell the difference too.
Of all the fascinating things they learned about turtles that summer, the one thing that stayed with them was how the turtles looked at them. With big, round eyes, a stretched out neck and slightly tilted head, these turtles knew the children. The turtles seemed smart and almost wise as though they were thinking very hard.