Box turtles

[Rich Z]

Took a walk to take a look at our temporary pond yesterday (Sunday) and found a couple of box turtles breeding at the edge of the pond.











While Connie and I were walking around our trail, we spotted another box turtle just soaking in some rays. High got to 82 degrees, so I guess this one wanted to take advantage of the warm weather.

[navy2kcoupe]

They look to be about 8 to 12 inches long. Are they full grown adults, or do
they get very much bigger? Don't get to see all that many turtles, snakes, lizards,
or many other warm weather loving critters around here, so I don't know much
about any of them.
Andy

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by navy2kcoupe

They look to be about 8 to 12 inches long. Are they full grown adults, or do
they get very much bigger? Don't get to see all that many turtles, snakes, lizards,
or many other warm weather loving critters around here, so I don't know much
about any of them.
Andy

Yeah, that's a pretty good estimate on size. The Gulf Coast box turtles tend to be larger than the more northern varieties. yes, those are full adults, and not likely to get any larger than that.

We also have gopher tortoises on the property, but don't see them very often. They are much more skitterish than the box turtles are. We used to see baby gopher tortoises around here, but haven't in a long while now. From what I understand, the infestation of fire ants has played hell with egg laying reptiles. The ants don't tend to bother the eggs, but as soon as the eggs begin to hatch, the ants will attack the babies and kill them. So it's pretty much just bad luck when a fire ant mound will develop near to a nest of reptile eggs.

That reminds me that we need to get more Amdro for the fire ant nests that are popping up. It's a continual battle against them around here.

[Kap142]

Happiness is a well satstified box turtle. I shall say no more

[Mark Dalton]

Wow, get a room guys! Oh, I forgot. They take their rooms with them wherever they go.

[Z06 Rocket]

Isn't this supposed to be posted in the Roadhouse section?

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Z06 Rocket

Isn't this supposed to be posted in the Roadhouse section?

No unmentionable body parts are visible in the photos.....