Skip to main content

Eastern Box Turtle

Terrapene carolina
The Eastern Box Turtle is quite common throughout its range in the eastern United States. In fact, they are the most abundant species of terrestrial turtle in that part of the Country.

Box Turtles are named for their hinged plastrons, (the bottom part of the shell) which allows them to draw in their arms and head and close up completely to stay safe from predators.

Eastern Box Turtles are most active at dawn and dusk, and spend their days cooling off in logs and mud. They also will enter pools of water during the warmest weather, despite the fact that they are a terrestrial species. In the northern parts of their range, the Eastern Box Turtle hibernates during the winter.

Mating for Eastern Box Turtles can take place at any time between April and October. What is quite remarkable about their mating process is that a female can store up the sperm and lay the eggs up to four years later!

IUCN Status :  Vulnerable
Location : Eastern United States
Size : Body length up to 6.5in (16.5cm)
Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Reptilia -- Order : Testudines
Family : Emydidae -- Genus : Terrapene -- Species : T. carolina

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bornean Orangutan

The Bornean Orangutan is one of two extant Orangutan species in the world. It is the third largest primate (after Gorillas) and is the largest primarily tree-dwelling animal in the world. Males are substantially larger than females, and average at around 165lbs. Bornean Orangutans are largely solitary. A handful might live within a small range but they will seldom interact with one another. Males and females only meet up to breed, which happens only once every several years. A young Orangutan will stay with it's mother for about five years, and the females tend to go about eight years between births. That is the longest interim period of any animal! Sadly, the Bornean Orangutans are in a lot of trouble. They need large forests in order to thrive, and deforestation and habitat degradation has left many homeless. They are also hunted for meat and for traditional medicines. Conservation areas are being established to help these guys in the wild, and it is believed that there are a...

Four!

For anyone who was counting, yesterday was our birthday-- four years! Four years filled with animals from A to Z, more than 1,100 of them! I can't thank my readers enough, it's been wonderful! And in celebration of that milestone... I'm taking a break. Hopefully not forever, but for a little bit at least. In the mean time I plan on getting a new layout out, along with some updates to some of the older articles. I'll post updates here and on the Facebook page, I'm also brainstorming some new animal-related projects, so keep an eye out! Thanks again for four awesome years!

Banggai Cardinalfish

Pterapogon kauderni The Banggai Cardinalfish is a small tropical fish that is becoming very rare in the wild, even though it has been successfully bred in captivity. You will only find these small, 3in long fish around the Banggai Islands of Indonesia. They are the only members of their genus, and you can tell them apart from other Cardinalfish by their three-striped bodies, tasseled first dorsal fin, long second dorsal, and their deep-forked tail fins. Banggai Cardinalfish are diurnal and live in small groups of about a dozen members. They are opportunistic feeders who dine on whatever smaller plants and animals they can find. Courtship and mating is pretty interesting for these guys-- females are the ones who initiate. They isolate a male and the pair will perform various courtship rituals before spawning. The Cardinalfish are mouthbrooders, which means that the males take the fertilized eggs (up to 90 of them) into their mouths and incubate them for up to 30 days. During t...