North American Wood Turtles have been known to breed agressivley in the fall. I have yet to really hear of what the reason for this is but with my group every fall the males literally attack the females. I have observed more breeding in fall with captive colonies than in spring. It seems once the air chills a bit, the animals begin to breed. I had a male just yesterday latch onto a female and she even pulled him out of the water and continued to walk around with him on her back. Wood turtles along with spotted, bog and blandings turtles, have been known to favor cooler weather. I have seen this proven several times with both my woods and spotteds. They are the very last of my turtles to enter hibernation, and they are the firsts to wake up in spring. In the fall I call it "cluster" breeding because my males all enter the water and wait for a female to drop in. As soon as one does, they boldly jump on her. Of course the bigger the male, the luckier he gets. One of my males is a very large bull male that we call "Jack" due to his intense orange color much like that of a "Jack-O-Lantern". He is so much bigger than any of the other males so he pretty much gets what he wants. While he is pursuing one female this is the other boys'chances to find their own females. This goes on well into October and not until it really starts to get cold do they stop.



It is important that you keep your female on a set cycle. Like stated before, wood turtles lay eggs at a certain time of year pretty much no matter what. This is like many other turtles of the mid-atlantic region. Hibernation is very important for these animals and it does condition them for breeding and being productive through it. I have had animals lay eggs without hibernation but the success rate was much lower when compared to hibernated individuals. I let all my woods cool naturally outside before I finally put them in their artificial hibernaculums.

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