Hatchling eastern box turtle,
Terrapene carolina. It was quite the unexpected treat to show up at a recent field trip rendezvous in southern Ohio, and be greeted by this little fellow. One of our fellow explorers on this fine day was John Howard, and he had found the turtlet beforehand and was good enough to hold it until we arrived.
The penny provides scale. Hatchling box turtles are impossibly tiny, and as a consequence very vulnerable to all manner of predators. A typical clutch of eggs is perhaps a half-dozen, and probably most and sometimes all of the hatchlings fall prey to a predator or some sort of mishap. If the little girl - I think it is a female - in these photos survives her first year or two, her odds of living a very long life probably rise tremendously. It takes about seven years until female box turtles reach sexual maturity and begin producing eggs of their own.
I had never seen a box turtle this small before, and I imagine she is just a few weeks old. I've seen hundreds of the adults over the years; they can be reasonably easy to find. My hunch is that the hatchlings quickly go into hiding and stay in very dense cover and don't wander much. It's good that John found her, and not someone else. A ridiculous number of these charismatic turtles are taken from the wild each year and become "pets". Harvesting box turtles from the wild is a despicable act and isn't legal, either, at least in Ohio. Far too many are mowed down by vehicles each year as well. These reptiles aren't exactly speedy and are sitting ducks when they try to cross roadways.
CLICK HERE for a post about that.
We liberated this little turtle in the exact same spot in which it was found. Box turtles keep a very small home range, and it's important not to take them far afield and release them in new turf. They're going to do best on their home ground, and if it is an adult that is relocated, that might be a turtle who has resided on the same football field-sized patch for decades before being uprooted.
The baby turtle fits comfortably in the palm of a hand, with plenty of room to spare. The softer undershell is called a
plastron, and it is already conspicuously ornamented with dark pigment. The upper shell of a turtle is the
carapace. Eventually, as this turtle's plastron and carapace grow and enlarge to match its currently outsized head and legs, it'll be able to pull its extremities out of sight and seal itself up tight as a drum. At that point, the turtle will become far less vulnerable to predators.
We hope that all goes well for this hatchling box turtle, and that it lives a long life. Young as it is, one can see the ancientness of the animal - maybe even more so in this little one than in the adults. If our turtle lives an untroubled life, and ultimately expires of natural causes, it will have outlasted most of the people who read this. Maybe every one of us. Box turtles certainly can live for five decades in the wild, and some undoubtedly last far longer than that. A centenarian is not out of the question.
This little box turtle certainly enriched our lives, and I hope she goes on to slowly crawl many miles and eat lots of mushrooms, bugs, and plants in her career. I certainly hope that she outlasts me!