Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is anyone else worried that there are so many wild-caught box turtles still for sale? All those easterns coming out of SC are wild-caught. Are that many people still ignorant of the situation or just don't care that they're taking WC?

Katrina

That just occured to me the other day. There are alot of people selling WC on Kingsnake. That means the population is definitely declining. I know Floridas are thriving on Egmont Key. I went to Egmont Key a few months ago, and I was actually seeing some young Floridas, about 3-4 inches long.

I say that ignorance is definitely still a problem not just with wild caught vs. captive but with turtle care in general. I don't claim to know everything there is to know (in fact I'm far from it), but even at 13 I knew enough to do research on what I was getting myself into. The issue is too many people just go into a pet store and see a cute turtle and the rest is history. They simply get what the highschooler working at the store tell them they need and don't even give a thought to where the animal came from or anything else. Even if they were told it was wild caught, I think less then half of the people would really care because they wouldn't know the difference.

Katrina, I brought this to the attention of our fellow conference-goers last year, some of whom seemed to have been unaware of the problem.

I think that there apparently needs to be more education on the subject. Just check out the "conversation" I had in the painted turtles forum with a guy who caught a gravid painted turtle from the wild and is trying to get her to lay eggs in his indoor enclosure.

To me in boils down to the fact, that even if you don't know the consequences of taking boxies from the wild as far as the effect you may cause the population or otherwise, it's still SO easy to find turtles that need to be adopted or captive breeders that have just about anything you could want.

I am one of those people that sell WC eastern box turtles online, and yes, I am from SC as well. Hear me out before you immediately take offense to what I do. First off, I have been extensively involved with research and conservation efforts for these guys and I believe that what I am doing is actually beneficial to the turtle population. There are still an estimated hundreds of thousands of eastern box turtles in the wild. Only about 1000 each year are taken out for the “pet trade” but another 10,000 at least are killed on the roads by drivers that just don’t care or can’t avoid them. No one around here will argue the fact that there are less turtles around than there were 10 years ago, but do you think it is because of the pet trade or the encroaching of humans in their natural environment. You can’t stop the expansion of human development and it takes years for baby turtles to grow to adults so if these turtles are not taken out and bred now then in the next ten years they may really be close to extinction in the wild and there will be very few CB programs to stimulate the population. These are my thoughts and feelings on the situation and are shared by others in the area. Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I do not sell these turtles for the money. In fact, one of the main reasons I ask such high prices is so the people that do buy them will take good care of them. If you would like to discuss this further with me I will continue to post on this thread or you can contact me at DrMoller@doctor.com.

Thanks, Adam Moller

Do you supply a care sheet with the turtle? A sales receipt that includes the common and scientific name?

Katrina