Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - July/August 2021 - 56

The Challenges of a Woodland Box Turtle
CURRENTS
If you have encountered a
Woodland Box Turtle, Terrapene
carolina carolina, you may consider
yourself lucky. In the eastern United
States, there are reports of Woodland
Box Turtles reaching 100 years of
age. Unfortunately, too many box
turtles only witness the inside of a box
rather than the natural world. This
has been one of the more commonly
kept reptiles that people encounter
in their wanderings. It is easy to care
for box turtles, and more than a few
parents have welcomed Woodland Box
Turtles into their homes. However,
keeping a Woodland Box Turtle in
Pennsylvania has been prohibited since
2007, because we have realized how
important each one is to maintaining wild populations.
The Woodland Box Turtle is distinctly recognizable
for its colorful (yellow, orange, and brown), high
domed shell, or carapace. The shell on its underside,
called the plastron, is hinged. It allows the box turtle to
close it tightly like a box when threatened by predators.
Males are generally larger than females. Woodland Box
Turtles are omnivores, meaning turtles eat a variety
of plant and animal matter, especially berries, fungus,
insects, eggs, and carrion. Box turtles do not reproduce
until 5 to 14 years of age. Only a fraction of the eggs
that are laid by females (usually in June or July)
successfully hatch.
Records from the Pennsylvania Amphibian and
Reptile Survey (PARS) -www.paherpsurvey.org-
show the Woodland Box Turtle occurs in nearly all
of Pennsylvania. Even though it is distributed widely,
reports at the population level have been indicating for
many years that box turtles are in decline. Woodland
Box Turtles face numerous threats, from loss of habitat
to development, to predation on nests and hatchlings,
being hit on roads, disease, and poaching. Protection
for habitats occupied by the Pennsylvania Fish and
Boat Commission's (PFBC's) jurisdictional species are
strongest for water-dwelling organisms. An upland
Woodland Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina carolina
habitat generalist like the box turtle lives where most of
the development and disturbance legally occurs. Land use
planning for connected open spaces and protected tracts
will help maintain box turtle populations in the future.
Woodland Box Turtles are our most terrestrial turtle
and use a variety of habitat such as deciduous forests,
wet or dry meadows, pastures, and shrubby thickets.
Many scientists have studied movement patterns in box
turtles and have discovered these turtles stay close to
a home range, some moving no more than 250 yards
over a lifetime. Box turtles tend to hibernate in the same
place every year, nest in similar areas, and will even
try to get back home if picked up and moved. Many
people who find box turtles crossing a road will take
the turtles to a habitat that looks " better, " but many
of these transplanted turtles never settle in at the new
location. Instead, box turtles may end up getting hit on
a road trying to travel back home. Because of the close
relationship box turtles have with a home territory,
turtles that have been in captivity for a long time cannot
be released back into the wild. The PFBC frequently
hears from people who are trying to find homes for
captive box turtles. The Commission tries to get these
turtles to educational facilities, so others can learn about
box turtles and the need for conservation.
There are several things you can do to help
box turtles. Drive carefully. If you stop to help
turtles cross a road, make sure you are safe,
and move the turtle in the same direction it
was traveling. Take pictures and report your
sightings to PARS to help maintain good
distributional records. Support local land
conservation efforts. And, most importantly,
leave the turtle in its home, not yours.-Kathy
Gipe, PFBC Herpetologist/Nongame Biologist.
56
Pennsylvania Angler & Boater * July/August 2021
www.fishandboat.com
photo-Tom Diez
http://www.paherpsurvey.org http://www.fishandboat.com
Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - July/August 2021

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