HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 03, 1981 - The Friendly Box TurtleThe
Friendly Box Turtle September
3, 1981 The other day I was
trying to remember what my first real
impression of the natural world was. Surprisingly,
I came up with turtles. That sounds rather odd, but that'
s the way it was. I'm sure there
were rabbits on the lawn and birds in
the trees, but I can't remember them
making an impression on me when I
was real young. I can remember turtles very
clearly. My Uncle Henry was building his house at
that time and the road alongside of it
wasn't even paved, just cleared with
a car track down the middle. Everyone was busy
with some phase of the building, but I guess I
seemed to get in the way and I was "
sent out" to find something to do. I'
d probably built enought boats out of the scrap lumber to
start a
small fleet by then, so I turned to the
woods. First one, then two and three -- by noon
I had four box turtles. I'
d given each an appropriate name and had rounded
them up in an enclosure
made of sticks. I had them climbing, pushing,
even swimming, and just about everything else a
small boy could conjure up. The befit were the races.
I'd set them up in
the old dirt road, alongside the house. Even
the carpenters had bets on their
favorites. Those were the days of simple
enjoyments. The turtle served me well in those
early years
because it stirred my interest in the
world about me. Later, I'd come
across these colorful, yellow- streaked, slow - moving tanks
in the woods. Often I'd find
their empty, bleach- ed -white shells and would
wonder what had happened to them and what
had been
able to penetrate what
seemed to be a perfect fortress. Box
Turtle Well Protected Our box turtle can protect
itself better than any other turtle
because it has a hinged lower shell -- called a
plastron -- that enables it to do a
superior job of sealing itself in. Most other turtles
can close
almost all the way but none
as tight SECOND
SECTION Tbef 6 TIMC5
SEPTEMBER3,
1981Friendly Box
Turtle was trying to remember @---a mn,l QmTq.
as our box turtle. Once in a while you'll
find one that doesn't pull itself all the way
in no matter what you do and
we're told that this condition comes
about
by eating too much, thereby making it vulnerable to
predators. A box turtle is the only true tortoise or land
turtle in our state and yet he is not
shy of water. I have often found them in
or near ponds or our creeks. Once I found 15
to 20 of them in a small
inlet over by Nassau Point. No one knows
exactly why they congregate every once in
a while, but again through research in hot dry
periods they have been found to enjoy a swim
to keep cool. Guess
they know a good thing as well as
we do. Our turtle is not at all
particular about what it eats. A meal
of earthworms, slugs, insects, berries or even dead mice
and mushrooms seem to fit its taste. I know
the latter to be true for we once
watched one nibbling away at a mushroom
in our back- yard. There he
was neck out - stretched, sort of leisurely nibbling
and swallowing; turtles
have no teeth and therefore do not chew
their food. Just this summer my wife
saw a box turtle in our driveway having
his Sunday meal of a dead mouse.
It had evidently been run over in the
driveway and provided the turtle with a meal. How the
turtle found it, I don't know, but
while he was enjoying himself he, too,
was in a precarious position in the
driveway
so we moved both turtle and carcass into the woods. COMMON BOX
TURTLE- -After the female digs a hole with her hind feet she lays five to seven
eggs and can be seen here pushing one
of the eggs in the hole. Photo
by Paul Stoutenburgh I, like so many others,
have often stopped to pick up a
turtle crossing the road. Highways are
death traps for these slow- moving creatures. This,
along with the clearing of land, mowing of
our fields and the general taking
over by man, has greatly reduced
the population of all turtles. Our freshwater turtles
are partic- ularly hard hit here on Long
Island, where it seems there are
fewer and fewer wet areas left for these interesting
creatures. The box turtle's eggs are
laid in June, having been carried by the
female during her winter hibernation. A hole is
dug with her hind feet about two inches
deep and five to seven white eggs
are laid. Once laid, the female covers them
and tends them no more. The
keen noses of skunks, raccoons, opossum, fox and
others often find their whereabouts and a
hardy meal is enjoyed but if undetected they
develop in the ground with the
aid of the warm summer sun and by
September these quarter -sized babies are
ready to face the world. Like the adults
who hibernate during the cold months of
winter in the ground, they too must
dig down and remain through
the winter until the warm rains of April arouse
them. It takes about five years for a
turtle to mature. How old they live
is not precisely known, but 30 -35 years
is considered average, with records going
as long as 100 yeas. Roy Latham
the great naturalist from Orient, had written a
paper some years ago telling of some
turtles he found having initials and dates
carved on their shells. Assuming the data to be
correct, and he had every reason to believe it
was their ages ran from 50 -70
years old. One had the slogan "No more rum"
inscribed on it and the date 1850,
which according to local history
was just after a Temperance Society was formed. Turtles generally
stay in a very
small area and can be found time and time
again. Our local turtles are a sign`of our
rural character and the less we see of
them the more we can be
assured that this charac- ter is surely
changing. Terrapene carolina ancestors go back nearly 200 million
years. Man is the biggest problem and so the next
time you see a turtle, pick it
up and admire it, remembering it is protected by law.
Check it and see if it has a
sparkling red eye, which designates it as a male.
Should you see one on the roadway, stop your
car and move it off. Turtles, like
much of the natural world today,
need your help to survive. Without this natural
world,
we might as well be living on
the moon. PAULSTOUTENBURGH If the All- Savers Tax =
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