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Terrapene carolina carolina
Male Box Turtle, Identified by the red eyes, concave plastron, and position of the cloaca. Box turtles have a hinged plastron enabling them to completely close up their shells. When frightened they pretend to be rocks, and generally blend in. This is the state reptile of Tennessee!
Upland forest with lots of oaks and hickories.
I spotted this one while I was driving some back roads in LBL doing acoustic surveys of bat populations.By the time I finished checking this guy out, he was in no mood for photographs and closed hismself in. This turtle had more yellow on his shell then almost any other that I have seen. The camera in my phone does not do it justice. I counted the annuli on the first pleural scute and estimate this turtle to be about 13 years old....but that is not exact.
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