A slow-moving, land-dwelling reptile, the Texas tortoise, which doesn’t have webbed feet, thrives in dry environments, feeding on cacti and grasses.
Unlike many tortoises, it is relatively small, making it a unique member of the tortoise family. They are also hard to find since they don’t return to the same places daily.
“They’re the weirdos of the North American tortoises, in that they don’t dig burrows,” says Jackie Tleimat, a research assistant at Texas A&M University. “They just dig one to two inches of dirt and lay down to make a pallet.”
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