© Bruce McNitt/Panoramic Images (Virginia)
Eastern Box Turtle
Characteristics
This is a medium-sized terrestrial turtle that reaches a maximum length of about 8 inches. The shell is highly domed, elongate, and smooth on the rear edge. The rear edge may be flared in some adults. The color is brown, or sometimes black, with orange to yellow spots, blotches or lines, the pattern of which varies greatly. The underside (plastron) may be brown or black and may have an irregular pattern of cream or yellow. The skin of the head, neck, and legs is brown with orange to yellow spots, streaks, or blotches. The adult may have a sharply defined beak on the upper jaw. The box turtle is so named because it has a hinged plastron that enables it to completely withdraw into and close its shell. The box turtle has a low reproductive rate and is long lived. Box turtles have been known to live longer than humans.
Distribution
Box turtles are found throughout Virginia.
Habitat
The terrestrial box turtle is found in many types of wooded areas, including hardwood forests, mixed oak-pine forests, pine flatwoods, maritime oak forests, hardwood swamps, and agricultural areas. It may also be found in pastures, especially in the edge areas, and occasionally, in caves. It enters water readily, but only temporarily, for summer aestivation, drinking, or dispersal. In hot, dry weather, the box turtle hides in pools of water, mud, or damp ground. It overwinters under several centimeters in the soil beneath leaf piles and grass clumps.
Foods
The box turtle is an omnivore. Fruits include blackberry, mayapple, elderberry, sweet low-bush blueberry, maple-leaf viburnum, muscadine grape, white mulberry, wild strawberry, black cherry, and wineberry. Animals eaten are slugs, terrestrial snails, beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, flies, dusky salamanders, slimy salamanders. Mushrooms are also consumed.
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