Eastern Box Turtle Information

The Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina) , North Carolina’s State Reptile, is a terrestrial turtle found throughout the eastern United States and is one of the longest lived animals in the world. Box turtles are characterized by their highly domed carapace (top shell) and hinged plastron (bottom shell), which allows these animals to completely close up their shell to protect themselves from predators. The elaborate and brightly colored shell patterns of box turtles are extremely variable, making each individual unique. Box turtles are omnivores with diets consisting of anything from slugs and snails to mushrooms and berries.

Eastern Box Turtles can live longer than 50 years and have a rather slow growth rate, taking 7-10 years to reach sexual maturity. Of the hundreds of eggs that a female box turtle can lay throughout her lifetime, only very few hatchlings are likely to survive to adulthood. Therefore, box turtles are highly susceptible to population declines because they are not able to rapidly recover from the loss of adult individuals within a population.

 

Major threats to box turtles are associated with human activities and include capture for the pet trade, vehicular traffic, lawn mowers, and habitat destruction and fragmentation due to urban development. Urbanization confines surviving populations to smaller spaces where they become more vulnerable to extinction. Railroads pose an additional threat to box turtles because they can become trapped between the rails where they are more susceptible topredation and may die from overheating.

The Eastern Box Turtle plays a valuable role in our ecosystem and, as the State Reptile, is an important part of our natural heritage that we, with a conscious conservation effort, will be able to enjoy long into the future.The General Assembly of 1979 designated the Eastern Box Turtle as the official State Reptile for North Carolina.

Elongated Tortoise We Should Know

The elongated tortoise used to be imported in huge numbers in the past. Although it is still imported today the numbers are not as great. It has been bred in captivity but it is far from common.

It seems that many of the imported tortoises that come from forest type habitat are typically infested with parasites and have a very difficult time acclimating to captivity. This is usually the case with imported elongated tortoises as well. They are usually very difficult to acclimate which is why they are still not very common in collections despite the large numbers that were imported in the past.

As with most other tortoises an outdoor enclosure is usually the easiest way to maintain this tortoise. A densely planted enclosure with a good ground cover of leaf litter or mulch makes the elongated feel quite comfortable. This tortoise is small enough that a similar enclosure could be set up indoors. The key is to provide a humid environment but not overly moist.

The diet for this tortoise is very similar to other forest type dwelling tortoises in that it should be provided with dark leafy greens and vegetables supplemented with fleshy fruits such as pears, apples and various berries. It is also known to consume insects, slugs and carrion when found.

Water should be provided at all times. Providing a shallow pool is also an added benefit. Imported specimens should be examined by a vet and properly treated for any parasites found.

Do You Have An Eastern Painted Turtle?

Do you have an eastern painted turtle? If this is your first time owning one, you will want to be able to take good care of it. There are some simple tips for taking care of these painted turtles. Your first order of business though is to correctly identify your turtle as a true painted one. Different turtle species have different requirements for care.

The painted turtle has a top shell or carapace that is black and flat. Its distinguishing marks however are the deep lines in between the carapace plates or scutes. The carapace edge also has red streaks on the bottom. The plastron, or bottom, of the turtle is yellow but may have some colored marks. Its legs, neck and tail carry red and yellow stripes. The streaks of color all over the shell and body of this turtle are what have earned it the name painted turtle.
Eastern Painted Turtle Housing
These turtles love to swim so they will not do well in mere shallow water dishes. They require a deep aquatic environment. A wide aquarium is therefore recommended. Grown up females need an aquarium that is a little bigger than a hundred gallons. Males may survive in smaller homes but should not be smaller than 75 gallons. At the least, the depth of the water should not be less than its shell width. Deeper depths are welcome. The width and length of the aquarium should be a couple of times more than the turtle's shell width.
The eastern painted turtle may love water but it also needs out of water periods. It should therefore have a basking rock where it can sit when it isn't swimming.
Eastern Painted Turtle Lighting and Temperature
Every turtle needs some sunlight to keep healthy. Its indoor habitat should therefore have a light source over the basking area. There are UVB light sources sold in pet shops for turtles and reptiles.
Aside from lighting, the temperature should also be monitored. As much as possible, temperatures should approach their natural environment temperatures. Painted turtles however are generally more tolerant of temperature differences than other turtles. Temperature requirements differ depending on the area of the habitat. The basking area should be around 85o F to 90 o F. The general air temperature should only be around 80 o F to 85 o F while the water should be 70 o F to 75 o F.
Eastern Painted Turtle Feeding
Adult turtles should be fed once every two days. Grazing leaves however may be left around everyday. On main meal schedules, these turtles should be fed meat but combined with plant food. Be careful though. If you give too much meat, they could grow too much too fast. Possible mixed food items for painted turtles include meal worms, pond plants, vegetables, earthworms, green leafy vegetables and cooked chicken.
Do not be immediately alarmed if your turtle doesn't eat for five days or more. If it shows no sluggishness or other obvious signs of sickness, it will eventually return to feeding.
You might truly enjoy taking care of an eastern painted turtle. Be sure though that you are able to constantly monitor and provide all of its critical needs.

Knowing The Eastern Mud Turtle

The eastern mud turtle, which is about 4 inches in length, requires a specific habitat to do well. For this reason, as the species experiences a loss of much of its habitat, the turtle is on endangered lists in parts of its original range.

Geography

• The eastern mud turtle has a geographic range from Long Island southward to the tip of Florida and as far westward as central portions of Texas. It has a presence in eastern Oklahoma and as far north in the western part of its range as northwest Indiana, where a few remain.

Features

• The turtle looks for a pond, lake or river environment that features a large amount of aquatic vegetation, where the bottom is muddy and soft, and the water is slow-moving.

Considerations

• This kind of turtle survives in both fresh and brackish water, meaning that it can inhabit salt marshes and has populations of islands off the Atlantic Coast.

Migration

• When a period of drought or unusually hot weather dries up its habitat, the eastern mud turtle migrates over land until it finds another suitable body of water in which to live. If it fails to find a new habitat, it burrows into the mud and spends the summer in a semi-hibernating state.

Hibernation

• The species passes the winter in a burrow below the frost line, typically in the mud near a marsh, pond or swamp. It will commence overwintering as early as September and return to activity as late as May in some places.

Funny Things About Box Turtles

This fact sheet describes a general box turtle, unless otherwise mentioned.
Description
All T. carolina have a bilobed, hinged plastron that allows the box turtle to close its shell almost completely. They have a steep-margined, keeled, high-domed, rounded carapace with variable markings. Concentric growth furrows can be seen on the carapace, although in some older individuals they become very difficult to see. The upper jaw is slightly hooked. The toes are only slightly webbed.

Males are slightly larger on average than females, the posterior lobe of their plastron is concave, and the claws on their hind legs are short, thick, and curved. Males also have thicker and longer tails. Females' rear claws are longer, straighter, and more slender, and the posterior lobe of their plastron is flat or slightly convex. Males have red irises and females have yellowish-brown irises.
Environmental temperature determines activity rate. Preferred body temperature is between 84 and 100° F (37.8° C). In the heat of the summer, box turtles largely restrict their activity to mornings and after rain. When it gets too hot, they hide under decaying logs and leaves, crawl into mammal burrows, or into mud. When it is really hot, they go into shady pools and puddles to cool off. In the spring and fall, they may be out foraging during all daylight hours, and they sometimes bask in the sun to get warm. Box turtles are diurnal and scoop out a shallow indentation in which to spend the night.
In the northern regions, box turtles go into hibernation in October or November, but farther south they remain active later in the year. To hibernate, they burrow as far as two-feet deep into loose earth, mud, stream bottoms, old stump holes, or mammal burrows. They may return to the same place to hibernate in successive years and sometimes more than one turtle hibernates in the same hibernacula. They usually emerge from hibernation in April. They sometimes wake up and find a new hibernacula on warm days in the winter.
These turtles usually have a home range with a diameter of 750 feet (230 m) or less in which they normally stay. Occasionally, for unknown reasons, they journey out from their home range. Home ranges of different individuals overlap frequently, regardless of age or sex. The turtles are often found together and show no antagonism towards each other.
Distribution and Habitat
Exclusively North American, box turtles occupy the eastern United States ranging from southern Maine to Florida along the East Coast, and west to Michigan, Illinois, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Due to their popularity as household pets, box turtles are sometimes found far outside their normal geographic range.
Learn about turtle conservation. There are four subspecies of T. carolina in the U.S.Terrapene carolina bauri (Florida box turtle) lives in the peninsula of Florida. Terrapene carolina major (Gulf Coast box turtle) ranges from the panhandle of Florida westward along the gulf coast to eastern Texas.

Terrapene carolina triunguis (three-toed box turtle) lives in the Mississippi River Valley from northern Missouri southward across southeastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma into south-central Texas, and southeastward across western Tennessee and Georgia to the coastal lowlands.
Terrapene carolina carolina (common box turtle), covering the largest area, lives from Michigan and Maine in the north, and ranges south to the boundaries of the other subspecies. Very little overlap occurs between the ranges of the subspecies of T. carolina, except for a region in Mississippi and Alabama where T. carolina triunguis and T. carolina carolina overlap.
Box turtles live in open woodlands, pastures, and marshy meadows. They are often found near streams and ponds.
Diet in the Wild
Omnivorous, these turtles eat snails, insects, berries, fungi, slugs, worms, roots, flowers, fish, frogs, salamanders, snakes, birds, and eggs indiscriminately. They have been observed eating carrion, feeding on dead ducks, amphibians, assorted small mammals, and even a dead cow. Their preference varies greatly by season but there is one definite trend. Young are primarily carnivorous while they grow during their first five to six years. Adults tend to be mostly herbivorous, but they eat no green leaves. Young often hunt in ponds and streams because the type of food they prefer is easier to catch there, but adults usually feed on land.
Zoo Diet
At the Zoo, they are fed salad, earthworms, and crickets; rarely mealworms.
Reproduction
There is some variation between the courtship rituals of the subspecies. The courtship of both T.c.carolina andT.c.major is divided into three phases: a circling, biting, shoving phase; a preliminary mounting phase; and a copulatory phase. T.c.triunguis and T.c. bauri both have somewhat different rituals, which may represent the ancestral method. Both triunguis and bauri males have added the behavior of pulsating their throats.T.c.triunguis does this in front of the female, and baurimales climb up on the females' carapace with all four feet and then pulsate. The actual copulation is the same in all subspecies, with the male standing somewhat upright, leaning the concave part of his plastron against the back of the female's carapace. It is in this balanced position that the male fertilizes the female with his penis. Males sometimes fall backwards after copulation, and if they can't right themselves they die of starvation.
The mating season begins in the spring and continues throughout summer to October. Males may mate with more than one female or the same female several times over a period of several years. A female may lay fertile eggs for up to four years after one successful mating. Nesting occurs from May through July. Nests are usually dug in sandy or loamy soil, using the hind legs. Then eggs are laid in this cavity and the nest is carefully covered up again. Females lay three to eight eggs, usually four or five, and they are elliptical with thin, white, flexible shells. The female lays several clutches each year. Incubation normally lasts three months, but this varies according to soil temperature and moisture.
Life Span
Box turtles may live more than 100 years.
Status
Box turtles are listed on CITES Appendix II. Collection for the pet trade and habitat destruction and fragmentation threaten the box turtle population.
Fun Facts
When frightened, box turtles retract their head, tail, and limbs into their shell and clamp it shut. They wait in this position until the perceived threat is gone. While juveniles have several predators, very few species can prey effectively on adults due to this defense technique.
Box turtles can be dangerous to eat. At times they consume poisonous mushrooms and the toxins may linger in their flesh.
Box turtles are most famous for their hinged shell, which allows them to retract almost completely into their bony armor to hide from danger. This shell has great regenerative powers. A case was reported in which the carapace of a badly burned box turtle underwent complete regeneration.

Which Is The Smallest Tortoise In The World?

The smallest turtle in the world can be broken down into a couple of different answers. The group Chelonians, a subdivision of reptiles includes turtles, tortoises and terrapins. The smallest Chelonian in the world is the Speckled Cape Tortoise found in Western South Africa; it grows between 6 and 8 centimeters and the males are smaller than the female. These creatures are marked Near Threatened by the IUCN. One reason is that the females lay only one egg each summer; which is hardly enough to restore the population that is dying. Other than that, scientists know very little about their mating.

Here is a little brief about the difference between turtles, tortoises and terrapins. Turtles are mostly aquatic and often have special webbed toes to allow them to move easily through the water. They are air breathing, but hold their breath when they go underwater. Tortoises are mostly land dwelling and keep a supply of water in their shell. Turtles have a comparatively flatter back compared with tortoises, which have a much more rounded form. Terrapins are between the two; they live partly on land and partly in the water and usually refer to a creature whose characteristics are between a turtle and a tortoise.

That being said, the smallest actual turtle in the world is the Bog Turtle, native to the Eastern United States. It grows to be about 11 centimeters long. Like their name implies, these turtles live in sphagnum bogs, wetlands and wet pastures. They like environments that are calcium rich; calcium carbonate, calcium or lime. They are listed as Threatened by the IUCN, mostly due to habitat destruction. As a result, some states have banned the removal of these turtles from their environments.

We Should Protecting The Eastern Box Turtles

A benevolent team consisting of environmentalists, researchers, state employees and contractors have taken to tracking (using turtle tracking retrievers), collecting and individually relocating eastern box turtles, which lie on the path of the large upcoming InterCounty Connector (ICC).

The eastern box turtles are so called because they are native to the eastern United States. They are found in grasslands and pastures, and also prefer mixed forested regions, and a moist environment. These turtles have to be hand-picked because let’s face it – they are turtles and they cannot outrun bulldozers. Permanent crossings for the turtles and for other wildlife have been proposed once the ICC project is complete.

All large scale developmental projects have to incorporate an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) component while proposing the project. Only when the EIA report is submitted, proving that the projects will not have lasting repercussions on the environment, are they given a ‘go’. EIA studies are severely opposed to, but mandatory in almost all developed countries.

It is impressive to see such large scale projects giving way and taking into account conservation aspects. The turtles are being relocated and this cost has been budgeted into the project, moreover as an extension, the adaptation of these turtles to their new environment, and the ability of the ICC design to keep them out of harm’s way will also be looked into – it’s a researcher's dream come true.