Eastern Box Turtles: The Long Goodbye

Habitat loss and fragmentation threatened the future of Eastern box turtles. Because they are so long-lived once they achieve adulthood, we often miss population declines until they crash. We see adult turtles ... albeit in slowly diminishing numbers, but we don't see the lack of juvenile and sub-adult recruits into the local population. Male box turtle #78, a resident of the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, illustrates the long goodbye of the Eastern box turtle species.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• turtle
• survival
• extinction
• Mass
• Audubon
• wildlife
• box
• nature
• habitat
• fragmentation

[1capdave]

That dude has a lot of yellow, I had a female like that. She comes and goes. She on the loose now, but will be back next spring. I have 2 turtles that reappear every yr. I put them in my little compound in the garden, but they manage to get out from time to time. I have one big male, (BIG RED) thats comes to the pen every spring to court the ladies. He's done this for 6 yrs. ina row now.

Va. law says a person can keep up to 5 box turtles in captivity.

[LyleVertigo]

@b55k57 Most are killed when crossing roads or during construction. There is a serious concern about illeagal collection and selling of all box turtle species. Some states have already started to enforce laws that limit the number of collection for private ownership and forbidding the sale of native reptiles.

As their number declines in the wild the demand for them in the pet trade increases.

[b55k57]

Next time you are in a recently built Wal-Mart or Home Depot, look around and see if there are any box turtles around. What, you didn't find any??? Gee, I wonder where the ones who were living in that undeveloped land went prior to the building of the store. Maybe they were crushed under the bulldozers. I'll tell you one thing, they weren't "over collected" like the idiot state rehabilitators try to choke down your throat.

[MrMultiReptileking]

i would keep it

[S8forenjoyment]

they are a fast turtle lol

[crazycoocooboy200]

i have one of them!

[AgressiveInliners]

that was kinda sad

[clrhilla]

nice")

[Twifan8787]

aww cute video!