Natural History: Eastern Box Turtle

I have decided to write about the eastern box turtle or Terrapene carolina carolina. They are pretty common in our area and I remember seeing them in my friends’ backyard all the time when I was little. They can be very underrated animals. They have a lot of personality and interesting traits.

Over the summers I work with a large number of box turtles, but as with most animals (excluding humans) the babies are my favorites. The pictures I've included are of juvenile box turtles I care for. (They are much larger now but sadly I don't have any current photos).

Eastern box turtles have a large range from Florida all the way up to Maine and are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list. They prefer a forested environment with plenty of ground litter to hide in. They especially need this ground litter during hibernation, as it works as insulation to keep them warm.

These guys are still considered pretty small for their age (our estimated age at least) and are still too young to tell the sex. It is much easier to tell the sex of a box turtle when they have reached sexual maturity. The males have a concave plastron and red eyes at maturity.

These babies were brought to us in a sickly state and were not eating well. In the wild, eastern box turtles eat a variety of plant and animal materials, but while in captivity they eat primarily fruits, vegetables, and worms. In the photos you’ll see the box turtles’ soaking water is an odd color. Since the babies weren't eating well and not getting the nutrients they needed we added carrot juice and vitamins to their soaking water in the hopes they would ingest some.

Captive eastern box turtles are known to have much shorter lives than wild box turtles. This could be due to stress or, more likely, the lack of nutrients in their diet. They are considered a good pet but it is probably not as good for them as it is the owners. Many box turtles are taken out of the wild and then released when they are no longer wanted. There is some evidence that after having a wild box turtle in captivity for a long period of time they will no longer be able to survive in the wild.

A majority of the box turtles I care for in the summers are donated by families who no longer have time for the animal, and though I am very glad they do not release them into the wild, owners should still have a better grasp of the responsibility they have when taking an animal out of its environment.