06/22/2024
North America’s common box turtle (Terrapene carolina) is found throughout the eastern United States and much of Mexico. For people who do not know turtles very well, almost every North American turtle they see is erroneously a “box turtle.” The real box turtle is distinctive, with a high-domed carapace (upper shell), and a hinged plastron (lower shell) allowing the turtle to completely enclose itself within its shell to evade predators. There are five recognized subspecies of the common box turtle, in addition to a handful of related species in the same genus.
North American box turtles are declining due to habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, in addition to human activity. Many die attempting to cross roads. The species has been assessed as being vulnerable to extinction. As with many reptiles, and especially turtles, box turtles are long-lived, and slow to reproduce, making any population declines much more significant. These charismatic turtles are omnivores, and are known to eat a wide variety of animals and plants. Their home ranges are surprisingly small, varying roughly between 0.4 and 15 acres; for better context, the lower end of that range is smaller than a football field. All of this means that these turtles cannot be moved far without causing them harm. Additionally, their widely varied diet means that these turtles have complicated needs, which cannot be easily met under human care. While it can be tempting to keep a box turtle found in a roadway as a pet, removing that turtle from the wild may be detrimental to the local population. It may also be illegal due to state protections.
If you see a box turtle in the road, and can safely help it cross, move it only in the direction it was headed across that road. It has a destination in mind. It is so important that more people understand the challenges our native reptiles are facing, and help conserve them.
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The photograph used in this post shows a juvenile eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) observed crossing a road. The photo was taken by iNaturalist user Dominic and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. The image was not altered for use in this post.
View license information here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
