Google Earth Community: Eastern Box Turtles

The Latin name for the Eastern Box Turtle is Terrapene carolina carolina.

Clicking on the following photographs connects to their Flickr photo pages where additional sizes are available for viewing and downloading.

On June 9 and 10, female Eastern Box Turtles were quite active in the Long Island Pine Barrens and could be seen crossing roads in Ridge, New York. The weather was quite warm and there had been some recent heavy rains.

This female turtle was found crossing Whiskey Road in Ridge, NY on the evening of June 9, 2008.

This male turtle was found along the blue trail in the Ridge Environmental Conservation Area on July 30, 2006. Notice the orange eyes typical of male Eastern Box Turtles.

This female was found crossing Whiskey Road on the evening of June 10, 2008. The irises of female Eastern Box Turtle eyes are lighter in color than those of the males.

This turtle was found in our yard on the morning of June 9, 2008. She was walking towards the Ridge Environmental Conservation Area which is across the street. We brought her across the road. The icon for the placemarks in the attached kmz file is a photograph of this turtle.

Link to additional Eastern Box Turtle photographs on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9428166@N03/sets/72157605646797812/

Links to Information about Eastern Box Turtles

Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program: Eastern Box Turtle
Excellent site from the Natural Heritage Endangered Species Program of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. This site also includes a distribution map for Massachusetts and a bibliography.

ADW: Terrapene carolina: Information
Terrific site. describes physical characteristics, ranges, behavior, and reproduction for the various subspecies.

Box Turtle Conservation at Davidson College
Includes information about the box turtle study at Davidson College in North Carolina. Has an interesting fun facts link.

US Forest Service: Terrapene carolina
Lots of technical information not found elsewhere, but some of it is in the form of symbolic data.

Box Turtle Fact Sheet - National Zoo | FONZ
Good general information about the species, with details about the subspecies.

Department of Environmental Protection: Eastern Box Turtle
Connecticut site with great photos illustrating variability in shell patterns.

Box turtle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Good section on threats, which should be read carefully so that the links concerning box turtles as pets will remain unused.

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