I had a personal encounter with one of my favorite herps of all time, the eastern box turtle. This animal is in the Family Emydidae and its scientific name is terrapene Carolina. In fact, this very species was a question on our most recent identification lab quiz. This is a type of “land turtle” with a dome-like shell, long neck, and has the ability to retract completely into its shell for protection due to its single-hinged plastron. The coloration of the specific turtle I encountered had ornate orange markings on its carapace and had a dark brown background color. This turtle is common across most of the east coast extending all the way up north to Massachusetts and as far south as the tip of Florida. This turtle is different from other Emydidae and other turtles in that it has five front toes and four back toes. This helps with identification to a significant degree. The carapace of the Eastern box turtle is often times colored with intricate orange and yellow markings. My encounter with one had all of these distinguishing features. The animal was 14 centimeters in length with a domed carapace. The animal was a male and I knew this because its eyes had a red coloration, its legs and neck was very colorful, and because there was a crevice on its plastron that aids in mounting the female. The Eastern box turtle lays its eggs on land and its habitat varied from muddy swamps to grassy plains. They don’t reach sexual mature until they are between 7 to 10 years old. They are omnivores and will eat just about anything from insects, to lettuce, to small animals they can fit in their mouths. Their lifespan is generally between 40 to 50 years, but there have been documented Eastern box turtles that have lived until almost 100 years old. I named my herp Fred and Fred came to visit annually right when spring began. I would find him roaming around my yard and we would bring him out lettuce and other produce and try to keep my cat Samantha from eating him. He seemed after several encounters to familiarize himself with us and became less and less scared for us to pick him up or touch him. Our first encounter with him resulted in him fully retracting and staying in his shell, much like he would if in contact with a predator, and he stayed retracted until we were a safe enough distance away. This turtle is relatively rare and I consider myself lucky to have seen one.

<-----Fred the Eastern box Turtle

-Hudson Sealey