May 23rd - World Turtle Day

Today is World Turtle Day and dang, I love those little guys. They are my favorite kind of reptile. Turtles are known for being kinda slow, docile, and shy, but this isn't particularly accurate to real turtles. For starters, a lot of turtles are fairly slow on land but a lot faster in the water. The docile and shy thing goes out the window the second you learn what a snapping turtle is. The other big one is the idea that turtles can leave their shells. They can't. If you find an empty turtle shell, well, there's not exactly anything that's going to come back for it. I think this rumor came from people being confused because Hermit crabs do leave and replace their shells. But turtles don't. So if you get a turtle, leave its shell alone– it only has one.