By Burt Glover

Last summer, I was overjoyed to see an eastern box turtle in my yard. It was no doubt, searching for food. The sight drew me back to halcyon memories of 1960’s Aiken. Hitchcock Woods was our go-to collection site, especially right after a heavy rain. Box turtles were a coveted pet to own — more desirable than crawfish, bullfrog tadpoles, lizards, snakes or any of the other hapless animals that we managed to capture. The parents took a dim view of our wild-caught pets — especially turtles — and mandated that we let them go after a few days. I now know that this was a wise choice.  

The coloration of box turtles is stunning — the dark shell and skin with the yellow blotches everywhere. On a sun-splotched forest floor, this camouflage is perfect. Males and females look similar. You can tell them apart by a number of features, including their comparative size, the curvature of the hind shell, eye color and the appearance of the nails on the back feet. They are called box turtles because of their ability to draw their body parts (head, legs, tail) into their shell when being threatened, and close off, or  “box-in” that shell so that not even an ant can get inside. Young turtles are not so successful at “boxing” until they mature, and so many of them die at the hands of skunks, raccoons, rodents, dogs and crows.  

Until recently, I had always assumed that box turtles just wandered aimlessly around in the woods looking for food … and, well, that’s about all I knew about them. As I later learned, there is so much more.

Throughout their lifespan (averaging 40, or sometimes upward of 100 years), each turtle occupies his or her own territory, which is about the size of a football field. If removed, it will innately find its way back to this plot, unless the distance is too far, in which case, it will most likely wander, aimlessly searching out this plot for the rest of its life. 

Though it may be obvious to some, I always wondered how turtles grow. The answer, of course, is that they grow in much the same way that a human head grows. Individual bone-like plates in its shell, numbering 50 or so, grow and expand. The shell grows from the inside, and any damage to it will eventually be repaired. Just as humans can feel pain and pressure through their fingernails, so can turtles through their shells. Because their ribs are fused to the bones of the shell and cannot move, they must rely on movements of internal muscles, especially those associated with the legs, to force air in and out of the lungs. This is why they seem to hiss when quickly drawing their legs into the shell.

All reptiles require sunlight to synthesize the vitamin D necessary to grow strong bones, and box turtles are no exception. They need a sunny spot in which to bask. Because they cannot regulate their body temperature, though,  a hot summer day may find them hiding in vegetation or underneath leaves on the forest floor to keep from drying out and overheating. When a thunderstorm arrives and the air cools, they take great advantage of this to get out and search for food or a mate. Unfortunately, many of them end up on the highways which cross their territory.     

Box turtles are intelligent and have an excellent sense of smell and sight for locating nutrition. Being omnivores, they must eat a wide variety of foods throughout their lives in order to remain healthy. The diet of younger turtles consists mainly of protein for growing — earthworms, caterpillars, insects, snails, millipedes, etc. Adults tend to have more of a vegetarian diet, including leafy plants, fruit, berries, mushrooms and grasses. Adult turtles, it is said, can survive 90 to 160 days without food, but only a day or two without water. Basking in the sunlight is frequently needed, also. 

Female turtles can retain sperm within their body for up to four years, fertilizing the eggs when conditions are right. Many times, she ventures out of her territory after a summertime rain to do so and may be seen crossing busy highways. The eggs are buried in sandy or soft loamy soil, and then she leaves. The sex of the hatchlings is determined by the temperature at which the eggs incubate. Cooler temps produce males, warmer temps produce females. In-between, chances are 50-50.

Box turtles are so much more complex than I ever imagined. Their beauty and popularity as pets may end up being their downfall. One 41-month study in Louisiana estimated that as many of 30,000 of them were taken from the wild, usually for export to Europe or Asia. Half of those were estimated to have died from improper conditions.

Taking on a box turtle as a pet — providing the correct diet, sunlight, and environmental conditions they need for healthy existence and survival — can be a Herculean effort. And unless you have a pen the size of a football field that happens to be inside the turtle’s home territory, it’s unfair to keep them. The most desirable thing to do is is to enjoy their presence in their native habitat. For this, I thank my parents for all the turtles I returned to their homes in Hitchcock Woods.

If you see one crossing the highway, it’s a kindness to move him or her over to the side, in the direction they are heading. If you are lucky to see one in your yard, realize that he is not on your land; instead, you are living on the land that he has been inhabiting since, possibly, before you were born.     

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Contributor Burt Glover became an accidental naturalist during his earliest childhood days exploring the dirt roads, backyards, polo field and barns of the Magnolia-Knox-Mead neighborhood of 1950s Aiken. Birds are his first love, and he can identify an impressive range by song alone. He asserts that he is an observer, not an expert, on the topics of his writings, which range from birds, box turtles, frogs and foraging, to wasps, weeds, weather and beyond