EASTERN BOX TURTLE

Subspecies: Florida

Common Names: Florida box turtle, box turtle.

Order: Testudines

Family: Emydidae

Latin Name: Terrapene carolina bauri

Habitat and Range: Moist forested areas; wet meadows, pastures, floodplains. Found in Florida and Keys.

Description: A “land turtle” with a high-domed and keeled carapace. Carapace is brightly patterned with radiating lines; side of head with two stripes; usually three toes on hind feet. Plastron often is as long as or longer than the carapace and has movable hinges which allow lower shell to close tightly against the carapace. In many individuals, not even a knife blade can be inserted between them.

Adult Size: 4-8½” long.

Diet in the Wild: Omnivorous. Types of food eaten include slugs, snails, earthworms, crayfish, spiders, millipedes, frogs, salamanders, lizards, snakes, small mammals, wild berries, fruit and mushrooms (both poisonous and non-poisonous), insects, carrion. Young box turtles are primarily carnivorous, becoming more herbivorous with age.

Reproduction: Females lay three to eight elliptical, white, thin-shelled eggs, averaging about 1 and 3/8”, in 3-4” deep flask-shaped nests. Females are capable of storing sperm and may produce fertile eggs for at least four years following a single mating. Box turtles mature in five to seven years, but do not reach full size for 20 years.

Life Span: M a y l i ve 50 years. Some individuals have lived more than 100 years, but it has not been reliably documented.

Perils: The automobile is one of the box turtle’s greatest perils. Many turtles are crushed inadvertently or deliberately as the slow-moving creatures attempt to cross busy streets and highways. Humans, habitat loss and alteration, pollution, and the pet trade are all contributing to declining turtle populations in the wild. Adults have few natural predators.

Protection: Against natural predators, box turtles are capable of closing their hinged plastron tightly against the carapace for complete protection of their head and fore-limbs.

Folklore: There is no question that these benign, gentle, quiet creatures have played an integral role in human cultures throughout time. Basically seen as protectors, symbols of strength and endurance, good luck and long life, it is a tragic and sad commentary that those of us alive today will see the demise of many species of these ancient travelers from another time

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Diet at the Zoo: A combination of fruits, vegetables, alfalfa, vitamins, meat, etc.

Primary References: Ernst, Carl H., and Roger W. Barbour, Turtles of the World. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.

Patterson, Jordan, Box Turtles: Keeping and Breeding Them in Captivity. NJ: T.F.H. Publications, Inc., 1994.

Wilke, Hartmut. Turtles: A Complete Pet Owner’s Manual. NY: Barrons, 1991. (English translated from the German).

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