15 Weird and Cutest Turtle and Endangered Tortoise Species

Do you know there are 360 species of turtles? Turtles and tortoises are one of the beautiful animals in the world. Many families often take them as pets, mainly due to a few features. In this article, you will learn more about each species and some interesting facts about them.

Ploughshare Tortoise: The ploughshare tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora), also known as the angonoka tortoise, has a beautiful domed, golden-yellow shell with strongly demarcated growth rings. It's so beautiful, in fact, that it's known to attract poachers. In March 2013, smugglers were caught carrying a single bag containing 54 of them in an airport in Bangkok. This tortoise, native to Madagascar, is critically endangered with fewer than 600 left in the wild and still declining. It is considered to be one of the rarest tortoises in the world, predicted to go extinct within two decades.