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.

This Is The Most Unique North American Turtles

One of the most unique North American turtles, the diamondback terrapin is in need of conservation. Terrapins, although not federally protected, are still protected in many states, which means keeping them is either illegal or allowed only with a permit. Check your state and local wildlife laws if you plan to acquire a terrapin. Captive-bred specimens are always the way to go.
Diamondback terrapins are one of the most physically variable turtles, having different shell patterns, skin colors, markings and shapes, even among specimens within the same subspecies. Another trait that distinguishes them is their large hindfeet, which gives them greater mobility in strong tidal currents and undertows.
Diamondback terrapins are medium-sized turtles that have a grayish, nearly black carapace. Their plastron is usually a yellowish or greenish gray. With white skin that's patterned in black and gray, these turtles have markings that are as unique as human fingerprints.
An adult terrapin needs at least a 60-gallon tank with a large basking area. Basking sites can be built using slate rock, river rock, etc., and should have a heat lamp to keep temperatures in the mid 80s Fahrenheit. They also require a UVB light and a day-night cycle that approximates the current season. The water temperature should be approximately 78 degrees.

Wild diamondback terrapins are found in brackish habitats, and providing captive terrapins with saltwater is important. Add one-fourth cup of salt per 20 gallons of water; commercial kits are also available at tropical fish stores. Good filtration is essential to maintaining their health.
In nature, diamondback terrapins are predominantly carnivorous, eating a wide range of salt marsh mollusks and crustaceans, as well as insects and fish. In captivity, however, these turtles usually accept commercial turtle food, insects and fish. For variety, offer smelt or cooked shrimp (not too often), but avoid freshwater crayfish. Adult terrapins should be fed daily, while juveniles need to be fed several times a day. Good sources of calcium for terrapins are coral (as substrate), calcium blocks and cuttlebone (such as that sold for birds). Diamondback terrapins tend to be messy eaters, necessitating more water changes or feeding them in a separate location.

Desert Tortoises Have Lived In The Deserts Of California

Desert tortoises have lived in the deserts of California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah since the Pleistocene. In the early years of the 20th century, they still thrived within the Southwest’s arid landscapes: As many as 1,000 tortoises per square mile once inhabited the Mojave. But by the end of the century, this population of the desert tortoise was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Livestock grazing and urban development, along with the ever-increasing use of off-road vehicles, continue to degrade the tortoise’s vanishing habitat, while Army translocation projects threaten to devastate the Mojave population.

Thanks to a lawsuit filed by the Center and Desert Survivors, in 2008 Fort Irwin officials suspended a disastrous desert tortoise translocation project that killed hundreds of the animals as part of “mitigation” for expanding the military base into tortoise habitat. The Army and Bureau of Land Management proposed a new translocation project in 2009 — but after tens of thousands of letters from Center supporters, the Bureau halted the project.

We’ve been working for the Mojave desert tortoise since 1997. Challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s grazing practices on arid public lands, we’ve helped protect millions of acres of fragile tortoise habitat. We’ve actively sought to limit off-road vehicle use throughout the desert tortoise’s range, including appealing the opening of two illegal off-road vehicle routes in Kern County, California. In 2000, we made significant gains for the desert tortoise when, as a result of our legal efforts, the Bureau permanently cancelled all livestock grazing on 276,125 acres of the Granite Mountains Grazing Allotment. In 2002, we and allies won another landmark settlement in which 1.9 million acres of the California Desert Conservation Area were protected against livestock grazing and 18,000 acres of tortoise habitat were closed to off-road vehicle access. More recently, we called on the U.S. inspector general to investigate the role of political meddling in the tortoise’s badly revised draft recovery plan and went to court to prevent a California mine expansion from affecting 178 acres of tortoise habitat.

In 2011, a study showed that desert tortoises in California and the Southwest are two different species instead of one. Scientists discovered that desert tortoises living north and west of the Colorado River (the Mojave population now called Agassiz's desert tortoises, or Gopherus agassizii) are officially a different species from tortoises in Arizona and Mexico (previously called "the Sonoran population of desert tortoises" and newly dubbed Morafka's desert tortoises, or Gopherus morafkai). The new study means that each desert tortoise species is even rarer than previously thought.