Some turtles from 8/21-lots of pics DU Warning

[dragoncjo]

With all the heat and lack of rain I figured the last two days would really drive mud, spotted, and box turtles out. The spot I was going to has high numbers of all three and my goal was to find babies in muddy dried up vernal pools and leaf litter. I didn't find any babies, but lots of juvies, sub adults, and adults. Here they are in the order I found them,
Adult male with a unusual shell pattern

Staying dry,

Adult female hanging out in a "form",

Best looking boxie I've ever seen, right next to above female and very similar looking,

Sud adult female

Huge pregnant female

Juvie

Adult Male

Adult Female found in roots of a tree

Juvie

Adult Male

Juvie

Juvie

Adult male with a deflated shell from a cow hoof or horse,

Beautiful adult female

Juvie possible offspring of above

Lastly another adult male,

Some spotteds, these guys were aestivating in mudd and some in roots of phragmites,
Female foraging along the forest floor,

Female in my footprint from last time I visited this place,

Adult male,

Another adult male,

Muds these guys enjoy the rain as much as boxies I think, saw a 17-18 of these guys a mix of adults and juvies

Also saw 3 ribbon snakes, 1 racer, some redback, leopards, and fowlers, and one painted turtle. The best part was seeing so many sub adults entering this population and very nice sign.
chris

 

[james ungehajer]

Great pics Chris, thank you for posting and sharing them.













Jim

 

[Teegate]

So there is enough room in the shell that the dent does not effect it?

As always ... love the turtle photo's.

Guy

 

[dragoncjo]

Guy part of the property I was on use to be a pasture or farm of some sort. Many boxies have injuries from tractors, such as big cracks in there shells. Yes they do have lots of room in there shell at the top. Most of it is a air pocket to protect them if they get in deep water. Boxies are very resilent as are all turtles. They can lose legs, have cracked shells, squished shells and survive, part of what makes them so intriguing to me. This female was found on the same property you can see from the picture her shell was completely crack open on each side like a door. She was perfectly healthy and completely healed.

 

[ChrisNJ]

Holy turtle sightings batman, and here I thought I was the turtle finder as a kid but the most I spotted in a trip was like 6. Gotta love the boxers, if only they could tell stories.

 

[Furball1]

Thanks!

Again, awesome photos.