Turtles are fascinating animals that carry their homes around on their backs. They have a hard shell, called a carapace, that encloses all their internal organs. Tortoises are turtles that retract their heads into their shells by pulling their neck into an S-shaped curve. Some turtles hide their heads by bending their necks sideways.

Turtles vary in size. Small North American box turtles can be six inches long, while the huge leatherback sea turtles can reach eight feet in length.

Turtles do not have teeth. While some turtles are vegetarians, most are omnivorous.

Turtles lay their eggs in sand or dirt. A few turtles live a long time, some reaching 100 years. The eggs are leathery, rather than hard like bird eggs.

Some pond turtles have webbed feet. One of the largest pond turtles in the world is the alligator snapping turtle. It can get up to 200 pounds.

Look for turtle tracks near water. The best time to look for them is the summer or fall. Females come out of the water to lay their eggs in late spring or early summer. They did a hole in soft sand to deposit the eggs in. Some land-dwelling turtles will dig burrows.

Sometimes the tail or shell will leave drag marks in the trail. The tracks are almost oval in shape with the toes showing on one side of the oval. There are five toes.