Newly Acquired

[Fergusf]

We live in Thailand and recently acquired a tortoise that had been abandoned at the local temple. It weighs 30kg. We have put it into an walled garden of about 1,500 sq.m. There is lots of lawn, trees and bushes which it likes to hide under, there is also what used to be a swimming pool in the garden, now a fish pond. Our tortoise likes to spend many days in the small pond that used to be the jacuzzi, it floats around in there munching on the water hyacinth plants that are there. It is difficult to get a decent photo of it because whenever it senses someone near it disappears into its shell, hence the not-very-good photo taken through a window. Can anyone confirm whether or not it is a tortoise or a turtle, because of its love of water it behaves like a turtle but judging by its legs and feet it is a tortoise.

 

[wellington]

Yes it's a turtle. Hard to tell with this pic, but Google yellow headed temple turtle and giant Asian pond turtle. It's likely one of them

 

[Maggie3fan]

Oh my beautiful turtle!!! My vote goes to the temple turtle!!!!!

 

[jaizei]

The coloration on the head does resemble yellow-headed temple turtle

 

[TammyJ]

Let's consult @TeamZissou

 

[TammyJ]

Oh my beautiful turtle!!! My vote goes to the temple turtle!!!!!

Mine too.

 

[Fergusf]

Yes it's a turtle. Hard to tell with this pic, but Google yellow headed temple turtle and giant Asian pond turtle. It's likely one of them

Hello, I googled both and it is definitely a yellow headed temple turtle, it doesn't have the prominent ridge of the giant Asian pond turtle. Thank you very much for your advice, now we can stop worrying about our "tortoise" spending all that time in the pool. It weighs 13 kg by the way, not 30kg, that was a typo.

 

[jeff kushner]

Very cool....all of it......