Eastern Box Turtle

Description:

Mid-sized, terrestrial turtles – 4.5-6 in (11.5-15.2 cm) – with a high, rounded shell that is dark with many yellow or orange splotches. Males normally possess red eyes (irises) whereas females usually display brown eye. While the female's plastron is flat, in males it is concave so the male may fit over the back end of the female's carapace during mating.

Habitat:

This healthy looking male was spotted on the edge of a vernal pool in Manassas National Battlefield Park, VA.

Notes:

Box turtles are slow crawlers, extremely long lived, slow to mature, and have relatively few offspring per year. These characteristics, along with a propensity to get hit by cars and agricultural machinery, make all box turtle species particularly susceptible to anthropogenic, or human-induced, mortality.