Eastern Box Turtles

[rickb]

Anyone finding them on the AT?

I haven't seen one in ages.

[WIAPilot]

I'm pretty sure that Balls & Sunshine ran into one, as I seem to remember one in their photos.

[Pumba]

I saw a very small turtle in SNP, off of the AT last weekend, but I don't know if it was a box or not.

[Tinker]

I have a picture I took of one which is still on my cell phone. I think it was in NY. Right on the AT.

[Odd Man Out]

I grew up in the MD suburbs of DC back in the 60's and 70's. I would see box turtles in the neighborhood all the time. I'd hate to think they were so rare today.

[atmilkman]

Here's one we saw on the Pinhoti a couple of weeks ago along with another buddy of his.1618916190

[Pumba]

Nope. That's not what I saw.

[max patch]

I saw 3 turtles last week on a trail an hour south of Springer. I hate to admit that I don't have a clue what kind it was.

[Odd Man Out]

Here's one we saw on the Pinhoti a couple of weeks ago....16189

This is what I recall from growing up.

[WingedMonkey]

I raise a sub-species of Eastern Box Turtles, here's one of my Florida Box Turtles taking a swim after laying a clutch of eggs.


http://youtu.be/DGdjtoZzU_s

[atmilkman]

I raise a sub-species of Eastern Box Turtles, here's one of my Florida Box Turtles taking a swim after laying a clutch of eggs.


http://youtu.be/DGdjtoZzU_s
Do you know how many eggs the turtle laid and what is the average size of an egg?

[WingedMonkey]

Do you know how many eggs the turtle laid and what is the average size of an egg?

She laid three eggs, which is kinda typical. I've had them lay four or sometimes only one or two. The eggs are oblong and about 1 1/4 inches long.
Here is a pic of them in the damp vermiculite I incubate them in. I brushed it back for the pic.

16194

[atmilkman]

She laid three eggs, which is kinda typical. I've had them lay four or sometimes only one or two. The eggs are oblong and about 1 1/4 inches long.
Here is a pic of them in the damp vermiculite I incubate them in. I brushed it back for the pic.

16194

That's way too cool. Thanks for the pic and info. I hope you have 100% successful hatching.

[10-K]

Funny that you mention it - I've seen 2 in the past month. One about a mile south of Spivey Gap and one crossing the road just down from Devil Fork Gap. Other than that I can't remember the last time I've seen one.

[WingedMonkey]

Here she is covering her nest.


http://youtu.be/7nzgWtdPE8w

[rickb]

Here she is covering her nest.


http://youtu.be/7nzgWtdPE8w


Love it. How old is she?

[atmilkman]

WingedMonkey, this is some really good stuff. I can hear your close to the airport. We are seasonal residents splitting our time between AL and FL. We're members with the FTA Loxahatchee Chapter and we meet at Okeeheelee Nature Center in the park on the first Monday of the month and we have guest speakers that come and talk about everything from birds to flowers etc. I know the group would love to have you come talk turtle sometime if that would be possible. We've got all kinds of visual equipment and from what you've shown here I know you could put on a great presentation if you wouldn't mind.

[topshelf]

I've seen them in the Groseclose area of SWVA. Down in the bottoms along the marsh/creek.

[WingedMonkey]

Love it. How old is she?

She is six years old.

[WingedMonkey]

. I can hear your close to the airport.

Not as close to the airport as it sounds on the cam. But the jets do fly closer to us since Trump sued them to not fly over his place. Something I've always found ironic since he's the one with a jet. I live on the north side of Pine Jog nature center. Three miles by bike to Okeeheelee.
I'm a member of the Loxahatchee chapter and haven't been to a meeting in 10 years or more.
:sun

[WingedMonkey]

In order to have eggs to got to have mating. It's almost an unpleasant thing to see. The female box turtle allows the male to place his rear legs into the opening of her shell and then clamps down on them. She then proceeds to drag him around while they copulate.


http://youtu.be/3RjWB60ZI-g

[Pedaling Fool]

While cycling, I often see turtles on the side of the road attempting to cross, so I always help them. I've seen the box turtle, but I've also seen a type of turtle that kind of looks like a box, but bigger, maybe a subspecies, just seems much bigger than the typical.

I once saved a Florida soft-shelled turtle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_softshell_turtle by picking it up and dropping it in the water near a pipe that goes under the road (the direction it was headed). They (the females) can get pretty big, this one was about 30lbs and very strong. Their neck is also longer than most turtles, so you gotta be careful of the mouth. A 30 lb FSS turtle is difficult to carry, because they don't go into their shell like a box turtle, they're flapping their feet and trying to whip their head around to get a chunk out of you. Luckily I haven't had to rescue a snapping turtle yet, not sure if I would.

[atmilkman]

While cycling, I often see turtles on the side of the road attempting to cross, so I always help them. I've seen the box turtle, but I've also seen a type of turtle that kind of looks like a box, but bigger, maybe a subspecies, just seems much bigger than the typical.

I once saved a Florida soft-shelled turtle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_softshell_turtle by picking it up and dropping it in the water near a pipe that goes under the road (the direction it was headed). They (the females) can get pretty big, this one was about 30lbs and very strong. Their neck is also longer than most turtles, so you gotta be careful of the mouth. A 30 lb FSS turtle is difficult to carry, because they don't go into their shell like a box turtle, they're flapping their feet and trying to whip their head around to get a chunk out of you. Luckily I haven't had to rescue a snapping turtle yet, not sure if I would.
I was at Jonathan Dickenson one time in the swimming area just sitting in about knee deep water when a soft shell came cruising across my thighs. I could feel every one of his feet hitting both legs. I couldn't get out of that water fast enough. (lol) My ex says what's wrong, I said "nothing" later on she says aren't you getting back in, I said nah I'm done. Haven't been back in the swimming area since. That was back in the late 70's.

[WingedMonkey]

Haven't been back in the swimming area since. That was back in the late 70's.

That was when swimming was still allowed in the Loxahatchee and the river was fresh water with cypress trees, now it's mangrove trees and brackish water and no swimming hole.

[rocketsocks]

I have seen more and more snapping turtles over the last several years,and less and less painters and box turtles.Turtles do fight with one another,just thinking maybe the box is on the decline,and some other species is on the advance.???Or maybe water conditions are changing,that then only allows for a certain type to flourish,again.???

[WingedMonkey]

This is about 45 mins of one of my box turtles nesting edited down to the 30 seconds of O-M-G.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7fuDoxwth4

[bflorac]

Ran into one on a ridge one rainy afternoon two weeks ago just south of the Bryant Ridge Shelter.

[Wise Old Owl]

She laid three eggs, which is kinda typical. I've had them lay four or sometimes only one or two. The eggs are oblong and about 1 1/4 inches long.
Here is a pic of them in the damp vermiculite I incubate them in. I brushed it back for the pic.

16194


Hey great thread - but oh well I am going to go there - you packed the eggs in Asbestos! Vermiculite killed so many miners The town is almost abandoned. Do not ever touch use or whatever.... To this day, because I crawled through it personally... it has weighed on my thoughts. ADT will not install an alarm system if that stuff is in the attic.-- ok enough said - lets move on.... love the turtle

[WingedMonkey]

Hey great thread - but oh well I am going to go there - you packed the eggs in Asbestos! Vermiculite killed so many miners The town is almost abandoned. Do not ever touch use or whatever.... To this day, because I crawled through it personally... it has weighed on my thoughts. ADT will not install an alarm system if that stuff is in the attic.-- ok enough said - lets move on.... love the turtle

Pure vermiculite does not contain asbestos and is non-toxic.

[Wise Old Owl]

hey if you have new information great - but I am done with that stuff. Honest.

[vamelungeon]

I've seen at least 2 dozen this year near my home. I don't know about other places but they aren't becoming rare here.

[WingedMonkey]

hey if you have new information great - but I am done with that stuff. Honest.

http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/verm.html

A mine near Libby, Montana was the source of over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. from 1919 to 1990. There was also a deposit of asbestos at that mine, so the vermiculite from Libby was contaminated with asbestos. Vermiculite from Libby was used in the majority of vermiculite insulation in the U.S. and was often sold under the brand name Zonolite. If you have vermiculite insulation in your home, you should assume this material may be contaminated with asbestos and be aware of steps you can take to protect yourself and your family from exposure to asbestos.



While the stuff used all those years as insulation may be contaminated. That mine is not the source of the vermiculite now sold at thousands and thousands of garden centers, Home Depots and Lowes across the country. You may be wise to avoid old attic insulation but what is on the market now is safe and asbestos free.

[Feral Bill]

http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/verm.html


A mine near Libby, Montana was the source of over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. from 1919 to 1990. There was also a deposit of asbestos at that mine, so the vermiculite from Libby was contaminated with asbestos. Vermiculite from Libby was used in the majority of vermiculite insulation in the U.S. and was often sold under the brand name Zonolite. If you have vermiculite insulation in your home, you should assume this material may be contaminated with asbestos and be aware of steps you can take to protect yourself and your family from exposure to asbestos.

To add to this, many people in Libby have died fron the contamination of the town. No criminal penalties ensued.

[chief]

To add to this, many people in Libby have died fron the contamination of the town. No criminal penalties ensued.
That's very misleading, in fact the company and employees were found NOT GUILTY of criminal conduct.

[WingedMonkey]

She laid three eggs, which is kinda typical. I've had them lay four or sometimes only one or two. The eggs are oblong and about 1 1/4 inches long.
Here is a pic of them in the damp vermiculite I incubate them in. I brushed it back for the pic.

16194

It usually takes longer but I guess the daily heat of 90 plus hastened things up.

The first one starting peeking out of the egg today, less than 60 days after being laid.

16826

[Feral Bill]

That's very misleading, in fact the company and employees were found NOT GUILTY of criminal conduct. Maybe so, but the people are just as dead.

[WingedMonkey]

Two days after hatching. No wonder you never see a baby in the woods.

16828

[rickb]

Good commercial:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4N5OIup6gvI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4N5OIup6gvI

[illabelle]

Good commercial:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4N5OIup6gvI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4N5OIup6gvI

now that was just plain sweet!

[aficion]

See below.:-?

[aficion]

I've seen at least 2 dozen this year near my home. I don't know about other places but they aren't becoming rare here.

Same here. Seems I'm seeing more than I used to. Who knows?

[Wise Old Owl]

I grew up in the MD suburbs of DC back in the 60's and 70's. I would see box turtles in the neighborhood all the time. I'd hate to think they were so rare today.


Every kid on the block picked one up and took it home and promptly starved it to death back then... They have been depopulated.

[Wise Old Owl]

In fact because I hang out with some friends Fish and Game had a planned inspection of indian pow-wow to discover if anyone is selling turtle shell which carries a huge fine...

Here is another story

Reptile Trafficker Heads to Prison

August 23, 2013

A 28-year-old New York woman who over a two-year period smuggled over 18,000 protected reptiles (many of them foreign species requiring CITES permits) from the United States to Canada for the “pet” trade was sentenced to spend 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to a felony conspiracy change. The defendant transported the reptiles by boat across the St. Lawrence River from the U.S. side of the Mohawk Indian Reservation to the Canadian side and delivered them to a Canadian co-conspirator. Species smuggled included red-footed tortoises (shown here), Hermann’s tortoises, Russian tortoises, Jackson horned chameleons, green iguanas, and American alligators.

[wren again]

24220 This one was just past the Lindamood school in Virginia, southbound.

[Tipi Walter]

Saw this guy hiking past my tent on the Rocky Flats trail in the Citico wilderness of TN---

http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2011/Tipi-Walter-and-Johnny-Molloy/i-KwWvN2g/0/L/TRIP%20125%20204-L.jpg

[marshbirder]

I saw more this summer than I have in my entire life. I was doing bird surveys in central West Virginia and they were all over the place on my plots; up to 6 in one day.

[Wise Old Owl]

love the positive coments folks but I have to stick to what I said here's why...( allow me to back up what I wrote)

I grew up in the Chadd's Ford Valley and the fields and woods were my playground... I spent time with some science folk who do Bog Turtle inspections prior to building just off the plain of the Brandywine River... as a kid, Box Turtles and Snappers were just everywhere. Today I have to travel to Octoraro Creek area to find Box Turtles in the woods. The creek is some 30 miles away and the area is very rural. As a teenager each year our yard would be inundated with snappers that would climb out of the river and cross the highway (RT 100) to lay egg nests in our yard... I almost lost a thumb to a large one when trying to relocate her out of the chicken yard. Today the BMW's don't even slow down for the migration... there are so few left.

[Sir-Packs-Alot]

I see them on the backroads in GA frequently and often jump out of my truck to get them out of traffic.

[oruacat2]

I found two box turtles near my workplace this summer - a busy "urban" area with no woods or water nearby, so have no idea how they got there. Escaped pets on-the-lam?
I also see a lot of those water turtles - flat profiles - hanging out in a little creek behind my apartments. I think they're called red-eared sliders?

[Hoop]

Saw a boxer southbound on the trail a couple of week ago at Hot Springs, a couple hundred yards north of the bridge.

[Cookerhiker]

I saw this guy on a day hike on the Sheltowee Trace in Cumberland Falls SP (Southern KY). I've heard from hikers doing the monthly "Sheltowee Challenge" who have seen 1/2 dozen a day. 24372

[rickb]

I saw this guy on a day hike on the Sheltowee Trace in Cumberland Falls SP (Southern KY). I've heard from hikers doing the monthly "Sheltowee Challenge" who have seen 1/2 dozen a day. 24372

I wonder how far north up the Trail you get to see them? I never see any in MA or NH. If I ever see one again it will be a real teat.

Perhaps God gave us New Englanders the porcupine as a consolation prize or just wanted us to range more widely to see everything the Trail has to offer.

[Cookerhiker]

I wonder how far north up the Trail you get to see them? I never see any in MA or NH. If I ever see one again it will be a real teat.

Perhaps God gave us New Englanders the porcupine as a consolation prize or just wanted us to range more widely to see everything the Trail has to offer.

FWIW, I'm currently in the Adirondacks and yesterday, visited the Wild Center (http://www.wildcenter.org/visit), an excellent natural history museum in Tupper Lake. They included box turtles in their displays of animals found in the area.

But I've never seen one in New England either.

[WingedMonkey]

I wonder how far north up the Trail you get to see them? I never see any in MA or NH. If I ever see one again it will be a real teat.

Perhaps God gave us New Englanders the porcupine as a consolation prize or just wanted us to range more widely to see everything the Trail has to offer.


There are four subspecies of eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina).

The Eastern Box Turtle subspecies (T. carolina carolina) may roam as far as southern Maine, it's unlikely to find any in the mountains of Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine. Most put the limit of their range as far north as Massachusetts. They should be found as far west as the Mississippi River, and north to the Great Lakes and south to north Florida.

The subspecies Florida Box Turtle is found throughout peninsular Florida and to the Florida Keys.

The subspecies Gulf Coast Box Turtle (T. carolina major), "major" because it is the largest,ranges along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from the Florida panhandle to the Mississippi delta.

The forth subspecies is the Three-toed Box Turtle (T. carolina triunguis). Their shell does not have the colorful pattern of the others, instead is a sort of dull brown, Although the skin on their neck and legs is colorful. They live from west of the Mississippi River into central Texas and the southern mid-west.

All of them can cross breed and create offspring that are a mix of traits.

[WingedMonkey]

The subspecies Florida Box Turtle is found throughout peninsular Florida and to the Florida Keys.

I left off the Latin (T. carolina bauri)

[rickb]

How many in your herd these days, WingedMonkey?

[WingedMonkey]

How many in your herd these days, WingedMonkey?

I'm about to put mine on birth control.

I had 38 successfully incubate this season. The last was about two weeks ago. Then Saturday I was digging and adding new mulch and compost to the adults pen when I accidentally dug up three more eggs. Went ahead and put them in an ice cream pail of sphagnum moss just to see what would happen even though two of them had holes from my cultivating fork.

Last night all three of those finished hatching. A total of 41 new babies to feed. That is just this year's crop.

[rickb]

I expect everyone is exhausted from celebrating World Turtle Day yesterday, but wanted to wish everyone plenty (or at least a few) Box Turtles this hiking season, in those sections where they have not been extirpated.

[TwoSpirits]

I expect everyone is exhausted from celebrating World Turtle Day yesterday, but wanted to wish everyone plenty (or at least a few) Box Turtles this hiking season, in those sections where they have not been extirpated.

Awesome post! Thanks for the smile, great way to start the day. :)