Box turtles

[ecampbell]

I saw these two turtles on High Crossing - Hampton Furnace road on Friday. My first thought was that they were mating but upon inspection they apear to be females, they had flat under bellies. Maybe you herpers can tell me how to sex a turtle. Guy, I know you said something about the color of their eyes.

Check out the mosquitos on these guys.

Ed

 

[DeepXplor]

I saw these two turtles on High Crossing - Hampton Furnace road on Friday. My first thought was that they were mating but upon inspection they apear to be females, they had flat under bellies. Maybe you herpers can tell me how to sex a turtle. Guy, I know you said something about the color of their eyes.

Check out the mosquitos on these guys.


Ed

Ed, I asked a friend of mine, Nels Anderson, this question and here is his answer. I also sent in an article written by Nels, on the Eastern Box Turtle.

Tony


Going through the many nature books on hand to help determine the turtle’s sex we found there are several characteristics that can often be used to correctly determine the sex of a box turtle. Probably the two most reliable features used to sex box turtles are shell shape and tail length. Males generally have longer and wider tails than females as well as more flattened shells. Two other features useful in sexing box turtles are eye color and plastron (bottom of the shell) concavity. In general male box turtles have very orange or red eyes and a slightly concave plastron while females have brown or light orange eyes and a plastron that is almost completely flat.

 

[Teegate]

It looks like a female to me. The males have really orange eyes.

Guy

 

[glowordz]

Thanks, Ed, for the photos and your question. I was wondering about eye color too.

Glo

 

[Teegate]

Jess and I were taking a really tight road near Mount today, and as I went through a puddle Jessica saw us run over a turtle. I ran back and it was not moving but was fine. A very shy female, the turtle that is

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

deepxplorer is correct.males have orange or red eyes,female borwn or golden.males have a concave area in the middle of their plastron to facilitate the turtle version of the wild thing.so the male don't fall off at that crucial moment.males do see to tend to get larger also,at least in my experience if i walk up on a really big one it's always a male though females seem to outnumber males about 5 to 1 in my estimate.
Al

 

[glowordz]

deepxplorer is correct.males have orange or red eyes,female borwn or golden.males have a concave area in the middle of their plastron to facilitate the turtle version of the wild thing.so the male don't fall off at that crucial moment.males do see to tend to get larger also,at least in my experience if i walk up on a really big one it's always a male though females seem to outnumber males about 5 to 1 in my estimate.
Al

I was getting ready to ask whether my golden-eyed female would be correct. Thanks!

Glo

 

[BlueMoonMuskrat]

why are the mosquitoes so attracted to them?

 

[ecampbell]

why are the mosquitoes so attracted to them?

I wonder if they can get a meal through all that armor.

 

[reptilecraized]

Box turtle males (Land turtles) have an indent on their plastron (bottom shell) which helps him mount the female. Coloration is not the only indicator of sex in box turtles due to some vibrant colored females.

In aquatic turtles (Painted, red-bellies, etc.) the sex can be determined by the tail length and possibly the front nail length. The tails on males tend to be longer and thicker than that of a females short skinny tail. The nail length is longer in a male than the female due to some courtship....the male with tickle the female's nose in the water to get her attention. Cute huh?

Hope this helps

 

[reptilecraized]

why are the mosquitoes so attracted to them?

They are attracted to them probably due to their smell (high odor content). I know flies will lay eggs in the soft tissue between their neck and shoulder. They cut a small slit and lay eggs...sometimes more than one will do this (mostly bot flies). The eggs will turn into larva, the larva will eat the flesh of the turtle and eventually metamorph into adult flies and will fly right out of the turtle. It takes some nutrients out of the turtle, but from what I had seen, they really don't do much damage.

Don't know if this was any help.

 

[ecampbell]

They are attracted to them probably due to their smell (high odor content). I know flies will lay eggs in the soft tissue between their neck and shoulder. They cut a small slit and lay eggs...sometimes more than one will do this (mostly bot flies). The eggs will turn into larva, the larva will eat the flesh of the turtle and eventually metamorph into adult flies and will fly right out of the turtle. It takes some nutrients out of the turtle, but from what I had seen, they really don't do much damage.

Don't know if this was any help.

It's alot of help and very interesting.
Thanks,
Ed