Tortoises are the general name of turtles of the family Tortoidae of the order Testudinales, which includes 11 genera and 40 species, while terrapins have no fixed families and genera. This kind of turtle is defined from the perspective of pets. People are used to calling turtles living in water terrapins. In addition, there are turtles that can live in water, but live on land for a long time. They are called semi-terrapin and belong to a species of terrapin.
Tortoises and terrapins are also very different in appearance. The former has strong limbs, tapered nails, scales on the body surface and no webbing between the toes. The latter have small limbs, curved nails, soft scales and webbed toes. In addition, their shells are not the same, the former is oval, the latter is more flat.
Tortoises are divided into desert tortoises, rainforest tortoises and island tortoises. According to these three classifications, we know their living environment is desert, rainforest and island, most of which are in Africa and Madagascar. Terrapins live mainly in hilly areas, but also in river valleys and so on, and can be found in many areas.
Turtles are omnivorous animals, but because they live on land, they have little chance to hunt for meat, so they prefer vegetarian food. If they feed too much animal feed, it will easily lead to overnutrition, which is harmful to their health. Terrapins prefer meat, mainly small fish and shrimp, but also need to supplement vitamins with vegetables, melons and fruits.
