Tortoises go to water only to drink or bathe.
Three species of tortoises occur in the United States and a fourth is found in Mexico. Some can be found in California, where they were sold in the past for pets. Tortoises occupy a wide variety of habitats in the United States. We make two generalizations about the habitats, however. They occupy a wide variety of soil types, ranging from sand dunes to rocky hillsides, and from caliche caves in washes to sandy soils and desert pavements.