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Eastern Box Turtle

Terrapene carolina carolina

Photo by SheaEckert
Published on Project Noah
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40.044, -75.3877

Field Notes

Description:

This little guy is just a baby! My sister's fiance found him while he was landscaping and so he kept him for a few days as a present for my sister. My sister then asked him to let him go. We put him back where we found him and we secretly named him "Titus". :)

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Comments (14)
Ashish
Wow..you have nice visitor..!!
TracyL
scott, I've never even seen one where i live, and at the very west end of mass its unfortunate
SheaEckert
That's okay Rob, I've done that so many times!! ahaha
SheaEckert
Thanks guys! I live in PA, and I haven't heard any news about the box turtles being a special concern here, but it's obvious there is a problem!
RobMarkward
haha, I just read the caption, oops. I was distracted by the picture, you said it's a baby....LOL!
RobMarkward
Perfect shot! It looks to be a young one.....very cool indeed!
ScottRasmussen
Yes, I live in Western Mass. and got to be friendly with a researcher who was studying our local box turtle populations. She really inspired me to get involved with turtle conservation here in Massachusetts. I recently encountered a box turtle about 800 feet up on a rocky slope in the Holyoke Range. They're not common, but they do get around!
TracyL
I'm so glad she wanted to let it go. In Massachusetts they are considered a species of special concern, nice shot its a beautiful turtle!
SheaEckert
Wow. I do remember passing a lot of turtles on the side of the road who had been hit. It's so sad! One time my dad saw one who was obviously hurt still trying to move. We stopped to look at him and he had a huge crack down his shell and he was bleeding. My dad figured out how to fix his shell and he lived a few more years (than he probably would have), and he became the 'miracle turtle' at a children's petting zoo.
ScottRasmussen
Sadly, they're impacted by habitat fragmentation (they need woods to feed in and live in and open areas to lay their eggs in), getting run over by cars and lawnmowers and collecting. They don't even become mature until they are 8-10 years old, and might only mate every 5 years or so. They only lay about half a dozen eggs in a clutch and very few of those will hatch and survive to maturity.
SheaEckert
Thank you! Yes, I've noticed that the turtle population is declining. We used to see them all the time when I was little, now not as much!
ScottRasmussen
That's a great shot of a beautiful little box turtle. It's good that you let it go since box turtle populations in the east are declining, in part due to people taking them out of the wild to keep as pets.

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2011 Best Wildlife Photo

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PublishedJuly 13, 2011

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