BILL'S BIG BOX TURTLES

I've received e-mails & blog comments on my Box Turtle writings. I can provide some history to my long fascination with this species & add some information which may help with the questions that have come up.

Growing up in Rochester, New York, the turtle most common in that area of the country -- & thus the turtle species most often in my position -- was the Painted Turtle.

The Painted Turtle can be found in almost any body of water. Like the Red Eared Slider Turtle so common in Arkansas, the Painted Turtles are often found -- dead or alive -- on the roads of upstate New York. I am sure my father rolled his eyes while driving the car if he spotted the outline of a turtle crossing the road coming up ahead. He knew it would shortly be followed with my shouting demands from the back seat of the car to: "STOP. STOP. Let me out ... let me get it". Which he always did.

Again, like the adult Red Ear's I retrieve now days from Arkansas roads, the turtles of my youth were always transported to "safer" locations.

Also native to New York State is the Eastern Box Turtle, a more colorful example of the species than the horn colored Three Toed Box Turtle common in parts of the Mid-South.

As much as I "searched" the fields & woods in my youth, I never came upon a Box Turtle in the wild in New York. So much for the turtle being ... "common".

It was not until I ventured South, to attend college in Memphis, that I found my first Box Turtle. Naturally, it was in the middle of the highway, on the Blue Grass Parkway in Kentucky. And "yes" ... I stopped & retrieved it off the road.

I've encounter quite a few Box Turtles since that time. They are still -- & always will be -- a favorite of mine, although I do not keep any in my collection of turtles. As I've described previously, my turtles are all "exotics" & I do not -- with two exceptions -- keep domestic species of turtles.

I would like to try my hand at finding a Box Turtle nesting & retrieve the eggs; to incubate the eggs & allow them to hatch. I'd have to find the female Box Turtle in the act of digging her nest -- as I did last month with the Red Eared Slider -- or find mating pair -- like my friend Bubba -- & keep the female for the 45 or so days it takes for the eggs to develop prior to egg laying.

Like other species of turtles digging their way out of the earth, it is usually about sixty days after egg laying that the baby Box Turtles -- above -- make their way to the surface. Unlike the aquatic turtles, the hatchling Box Turtles do not have to make it to a body of water to survive & thus can quickly hide in the under brush. They are well adapted for hiding & are not frequently encountered by humans for the first several years of their lives.

There ya go ... everything ... anyone ... would need to know about Box Turtles.

Maybe I need to rename this blog, from bamboo to: Bill's Big Box Turtles.