Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone know if wild box turtles can still be found in upstate NY? Just curious, I've lived here my entire life an have never seen one (not that I would be surprised if they are here and I just never saw them).

yes they are here but they are very few and far between. if you look at the nys herp atlas their were many that were counted in my county(catt) but by many i mean less than 100 but i myself a hunter and fellow herper have never encountered one but i have purchased them from unknowing uncaring kids that have found them
adam
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hybrid breeders association
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1.1 kenyan sand boas
1.1 mbk
1.1 butter corns
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Thanks for the reply. I had read they used to be very common in ny, and was wondering if there were still any left. Again, thank you.

Why are they not common anymore. Is it true that native americans wiped out most box turtle populations in the north?

I doubt native americans have anything to do with it. Actually I believe they warned settlers not to eat box turtles because the turtles sometimes ate poisonous mushrooms, making them poisonous.

I think it has more to do with habit destruction and over collection for the pet trade.

Box turtle shells were used by native americans for ceremonial purposes, and box turtles may well have been used as a food source also. As we know now, all it takes is the removal of a few reproductive adults from the population to result in extirpation decades later. Native americans may very well have done this in the northernmost parts of the box turtles range. The fact remains that box turtles have been rare, if not completely absent, in upstate NY for a very long time, well before the advent of the automobile, sprawl, and other relatively recent human activity on a larger scale.

The only published account of poisoning from eating box turtle flesh (that I am aware of) was from miners during a coal strike...no word of native americans 'warning' the whites about eating the flesh. That was thought to be the result of the turtle having fed on poisonous mushrooms...mushrooms aren't always an available food source for turtles, though, so maybe their flesh is edible.

wild mushrooms grow very well here, even around the sides of roads you can spot little orange mushrooms, up further in the woods if you look for them you will with out a doubt find them easily.

I believe habitat distruction had more to do with their demise than native americans.. if native americans did it box turtles would never have been documented in this area because there would not have been any to document.
to me it's like blaming native americans for the demise of the wolf, wolf heads and pelts were used for ceramonies.

--wild mushrooms grow very well here, even around the sides of roads you can spot little orange mushrooms, up further in the woods if you look for them you will with out a doubt find them easily.--

I realize that mushrooms grow in New England. Are they available all season long? Even during periods of drought? They may not be available all season every year...that was the point I was trying to make.

--I believe habitat distruction had more to do with their demise than native americans.. if native americans did it box turtles would never have been documented in this area because there would not have been any to document.--

I don't think anyone said that native americans completely wiped them out prior to the arrival of white settlers. However, it isn't unreasonable (to me at least) to think that the native inhabitants in some areas may have indeed thinned populations of box turtles to a degree that they just never recovered. We are, after all, talking about the northern fringes of the box turtles range, where there may not have been huge populations to begin with
The kind of habitat fragmentation and pet collection that was implied initially is a relatively recent phenomenon, and certainly has had a much greater impact closer to NYC, but not necessarily upstate NY, where turtle populations may well have been sparse to begin with.

--to me it's like blaming native americans for the demise of the wolf, wolf heads and pelts were used for ceramonies.--

Not like that at all. Not 'blaming' any one thing, or anyone, in particular.

Didn't know that, I had always heard they didn't eat them. I didn't know they used them for ceremonies. Either way its a bummer there are not more boxies around up here.