North American Box Turtles (Terrapene species)

North American box turtles are divided into two separate species, with two subspecies (or races) within each species:

The species of box turtle most frequently encountered in Socorro County is the Ornate Box Turtle. The Desert Box Turtle tends to occur in Dona Ana, Otero, Sierra, and other counties along the southern edge of the state.

What to do if you see a box turtle in the road:

Please stop and move the turtle to the side of the road, in the same direction it was originally headed. Try not to startle the turtle, and be gentle when picking it up. Box turtles respond to predators by emptying their bladders....however, the water stored in their bladders also serves as a "reserve tank" so that they can survive in semi-arid conditions. If you force the turtle to urinate, it can result in dehydration and death for the turtle.

Please don't take any box turtle from its habitat!

Wild-caught specimens tend to have particular difficulty in adapting to captivity. Despite this, many thousands of box turtles are harvested from the wild each summer all over the United States and sold into the pet trade. This harvest may potentially affect the survival of the species as a whole. Turtles are k-selected species with long lifespans and late maturity. Most mammals are r-selected species -- meaning that they have short lifespans and early maturity, and thus their populations can recover relatively quickly after a hunt or other removal from the environment. But k-selected species cannot sustain any harvesting, because their survival depends upon a low, density-independent reproductive output over a long lifetime.

For example: an average snapping turtle attains maturity at age 20. It lays an average of 30 eggs per year. The chance of each individual turtle's survival from egg to adult is 1 in 1500. Thus, the snapping turtle needs a 100-year reproductive lifespan just to sustain the local population. Box turtles only lay three to five eggs per year -- so you don't have to be a mathematical genius to realize that each individual box turtle removed from the wild can severely reduce the box turtle population in a given area. Many states have declared box turtles a protected species due to habitat destruction and population decline due to the pet trade. While harvesting box turtles is still legal in New Mexico, please resist the temptation to take that boxie home with you!

ALSO: Box turtles are very territorial animals that spend most of their lives learning where to locate food, water, burrows, and mates within a specific area of land. If they are moved to a different area, they may not survive. Thus, if someone brings you a wild-caught boxie and you decide to return it to the wild, try to put it back as closely as possible to where it was caught.

Photos of our boxies

Our boxies were rescues that we adopted because their habitat was paved over or developed for new housing, or because people who found them on roads took them home, then didn't know what to do with them. Because we don't know where they came from, we cannot release them back into the wild. We also have a few Three-Toed boxies that were rescued from pet stores. Three-Toed boxies are native to the Mississippi River drainage area.

Comparison: The smaller turtle on the left is an Ornate Boxie; the larger turtle on the right is a Three-Toed Boxie	Box turtles can swim, and will make use of puddles, ponds, etc. to tank up on water
A Three-Toed Boxie in our pond	An old Desert Boxie female
Ornate Boxie	Ornate Boxie
Ornate Boxie	Ornate Boxie, looking for a handout
Desert Boxie	Desert Boxie

 

How to take care of a box turtle

If you decide to keep a box turtle as a pet, please keep it in a secure outdoor pen. Adult box turtles do not do well in indoor enclosures for very long. Here are some websites that provide care information:

• Rio Grande Turtle & Tortoise Club:
  http://www.rgttc.org/
• Tess Cook's Box Turtle website:
  http://boxturtlesite.org/
• General Box Turtle Caresheet by Mary Hopson:
  http://www.turtlepuddle.org/american/boxcare.html