Eastern box turtles are a rare find today
A week ago, I was driving down a local road and spotted a turtle trying to cross the pavement. I skirted his path, quickly calculated his potential for success, and turned around to retrieve him from his path. For the next few hours, he resided in a cardboard box; then I took him home to release in the woods behind my house. At first sight, I knew the turtle to be an eastern box turtle, Terrapene carolina. When I was younger, spending summers in the Poconos of northeastern Pennsylvania, box turtles were a common sight. On occasion a box turtle would be a temporary pet, and my sisters and I would feed it ground beef, fruit and berries, and salad greens.
Most gardeners won’t come across a turtle in their cultivated garden, but turtles have been a part of nature’s garden since prehistoric times. I have a special affinity for box turtles because they are so interesting.
Box turtles are strictly a North American turtle, ranging across the United States and into Mexico. There is a western box turtle, but in the eastern part of the country, you’ll find only the eastern box turtle. There are variations of the eastern box turtle with subspecies T. carolina bauri in Florida, T. carolina major along the Gulf Coast, T. carolina triunguis in the Midwest from Michigan south through eastern Texas, and T. carolina carolina everywhere else in the eastern box turtle range.
While you will sometimes see them soaking in mud or water, the eastern box turtle is terrestrial, content to live on land in woodlands, meadows, pastures and near streams or ponds.
They are active during the day and enjoy a varied menu. In fact, their diet can include insects, slugs, snails, earthworms, salamanders, frogs, fish, snakes, eggs, berries, fungus (including mushrooms poisonous to humans, so don’t eat box turtles), plant roots and flowers, and much more. According to scientists, younger box turtles are more carnivorous than older turtles, which tend to be herbivores. I suppose as box turtles age they become more concerned with their figure.
The shells of box turtles are distinctive. The dome-shaped upper shell (the carapace) is dark brown or olive colored with beautiful yellow or orange patterned markings. The lower shell (the plastron) is hinged, allowing the box turtle to pull in its legs, tail and head, close up its shell tight and wait secure inside at any sign of danger. The shell is actually part of the turtle’s body, so a turtle cannot crawl out and leave it behind. The shell is bone covered by keratin, the same material as human hair and fingernails.
The plates you see making up the turtle shell are called “scutes,” and the rings do not indicate a turtle’s age. I recently read that researchers seem to believe that the rings are thin or fat depending on a turtle’s growth spurts; wide rings perhaps indicating good food conditions, while thinner rings may indicate leaner times or drought.
Male and female box turtles have slightly different characteristics. Female box turtles have a higher domed upper shell, while males are slightly flattened.
Females have flat plastrons, where males are somewhat concave.
And males have bright orange-to-red eyes, while females have yellowish-brown eyes. My turtle was definitely a male.
In northern parts of the country eastern box turtles hibernate in the winter, digging down into the earth, stump holes or animal burrows in October or November. They emerge in spring to mate, but can mate all through the summer. Females that successfully mate can lay eggs for several years afterward. Female box turtles will dig nests in the earth to hold their eggs – from three to eight of them – which are covered up again to incubate. Depending on the temperature and moisture conditions, the eggs may hatch in about three months.
Eastern box turtles can grow to be seven inches or so long. They can live 30 to 40 years, with some surviving as long as 100 years.
Unfortunately, in many areas eastern box turtles are rarer than they used to be for a variety of reasons, including loss of woodland and meadow habitat to agriculture and suburbia, the use of pesticides, automobiles, and people taking them from the wild for pets.
I kept the turtle I “rescued” in a large fenced-in area in my front yard for a few days to observe him.
He was slow and purposeful in his activity. He seemed to hunker down a lot among the shrubs and plants. During the hot part of summer, box turtles will do that.
I almost gave him a name, but I didn’t. That made releasing him in the woods easier.
So did finding out box turtles typically have a home range of 750 feet or so – though they will travel much farther, if necessary.
Maybe I’ll see him again sometime. I’ll recognize him from his shell pattern. He seemed to enjoy posing for photos.
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Susan Brimo-Cox gardens, observes nature and writes in Ohiopyle. Readers can send questions or comments to her at naturesgarden@brimo-cox.com.