Additional measures, such as creating wildlife crossings, translocation or developing replacement habitat, could help further protect box turtles.Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) Many states also have laws that protect wild box turtles from capture. Pet turtles that are later released may pose threats to the native populations by introducing disease.īox turtles benefit greatly from protected areas, which maintain natural habitats and protect them from the dangers of high traffic. While box turtles are no longer caught in large numbers for the pet industry, individuals are still caught as personal pets, as well as for turtle racing. Because they are so energetic on land, these animals are often killed by vehicles traveling on roads that cross through their remaining habitats.Įastern box turtles are also a popular commodity in the international market as exotic pets, and a listing by CITES now regulates the commercial trade of this species.

The rising demand for the development of suburban areas further exacerbates the decline by fragmenting the populations that are left. Throughout the past century, the conversion of woodlands and wetlands into agricultural land has extirpated populations where they once existed. Habitat destruction has led to a decline of eastern box turtles in their former range.

Box turtles exhibit temperature dependent sex determination eggs incubated at 22-27 degrees Celsius (70-80 degrees Fahrenheit) are more likely to be males, and those incubated above 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) are more likely to be females. She then covers the eggs, which incubate and hatch on their own. The female uses her hind legs to dig a nest in sandy soil. Females generally lay four or five eggs, but it is not uncommon for them to lay anywhere from one to 11. In fact, a female could lay fertile eggs up to four years after a successful mating! Females can store sperm for up to four years and therefore do not mate every year. Males may mate with more than one female or the same female several times. After a rainfall, males become especially active in their search for a female. Mating season for eastern box turtles generally starts in the spring and continues through the fall. A homing instinct, an innate ability to navigate to a 'home base' despite being in an unfamiliar area, helps this turtle find its way back home.īox turtles reach sexual maturity around the age of 5. Males also have short, thick, curved hind claws, while females' hind claws are long, straight and thin.Įastern box turtles walk energetically with their heads upright and may travel about 50 meters (55 yards) in one day. Males are generally larger and have shorter, thicker tails than females. There are many ways to tell a male and female box turtle apart. In one reported case, the carapace of a badly burned box turtle completely regenerated.īox turtles have a hooked upper jaw, and most have a significant overbite. Its shell is also unique in that it can regenerate. When threatened, the box turtle pulls its body into its shell and waits for the danger to pass. All box turtles have this bilobed plastron, which allows them to almost completely shut their shell. The underside of its shell, called its plastron, is dark brown and hinged.

Its distinct coloring camouflages it among the damp earth, fallen leaves and other debris found on the floor of moderately moist forests. The vivid, orange and yellow markings on its dark brown shell distinguish it from other box turtles, as do the four toes on its hind feet. It has a high-domed, rounded, hard upper shell, called a carapace. The eastern box turtle is one of six extant subspecies of the common box turtle.

Eastern box turtle