Help identifying turtles

irishman

Scout
Mar 30, 2004
69
0
Can anyone tell me what turtles are native to the Pines? If there are too many, is there a book anyone would suggest? Thanks
Brian
 

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
5,058
3,328
Pestletown, N.J.
The most common are the painted turtle and snapper around water and the box turtle on land.
The painters are laying eggs in the sand roads around my house this week.
I came across 3 egg burrows and one run-over painter in one stretch on Tuesday.
NJ Fish and Wildlife publishes a field guide to amphibians and reptiles of NJ for about $10.00.
Here is the link for how to purchase it.
http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/prod_herpguide.htm
Scott
 
B

BarryC

Guest
The one book I'd recommend that would help identify all native Pine Barrens plants and animals would be Howard Boyd's Field Guide to the New Jersey Pine Barrens. It can be purchased at Buzby's in Chatsworth and on Amazon. It covers plants, trees, ferns, moss, lichen, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals and so on. It's a great reference.
irishman said:
Can anyone tell me what turtles are native to the Pines? If there are too many, is there a book anyone would suggest? Thanks
Brian
 
B

bach2yoga

Guest
Here are some local turtles. I think I have them all IDd correctly, if anyone knows otherwise, let me know.
Boyd's is a good general guide.
I really liked Boyd's book when I first got started, but don't use it much anymore. Boyd is an entymologist, not a botanist, and a lot of his nomenclature is outdated. For flowers I'd suggest Newcomb's Guide to Wildflowers, and and wouldn't even bother with Boyd's lichens or mosses, it's woefully inadequate. But he knows his bugs (which I don't know at all) and the animal kingdom is more than sufficient for me. I tend to rely on the nj fish and wildlife books though, they have a lot more information and are in color.

Redneck's recommendation to reptiles is a good one, definitely worth adding to the collection, I think.

here are a few local turtles:
spotted turtle
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/module...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/module...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
red bellied turtle
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/module...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

mud turtle
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/module...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
snapping turtle
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/module...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
female box turtle
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/module...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
male box turtle
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/module...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
box turtles mating
http://www.njpinebarrens.com/module...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
 
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