Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A friend of mine gave me a Florida box turtle he pulled from the side of the road. I'm keeping him in an extra box turtle pen for right now, but I'm thinking about releasing him. I'm thinking about either bringing him to Oscar Scherer State Park or Myakka State Park. Would one of those two be okay for release?

It would be best to release the turtle near where is was found.
Box turtles have home ranges and to put it in a strange environment is not doing it any favors, as it will wander around trying to find the way back to where it came from.
Most parks have rules against releasing animals (even native ones) in them.

Tim

Third Eye

He doesn't know the exact location. He said it was on I-75 in south Sarasota and he found him when he was out field herping.

By the way, nice looking boxies! They have perfect shells!

it could also introduce new diseases that are not found in that area.
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2 Taricha granulosa
1 male Terrapane carolina carolina
10 gal. tropical fish tank.

True, as well as genetically "pollute" the populatation, which would be a shame, since the idea of a National Park is to protect the existing population.

Tim

It might be helpful for you to do some more reading on the subject in order to better understand why it is *not* a good idea to translocate adult box turtles. I would urge you to become better informed on the subject.

What should I do with him? I don't have any problem with keeping him, but I didn't plan on keeping him long-term. He's a really old boy, probably too old to breed. He's friendly though, and he eats good. The only thing, so far that he doesn't like is tomatoes, but he loves nightcrawlers, superworms, and strawberries.

I'll be blunt.

Ask yourself this: if you don't know what to do with an animal, why are you taking it in?
First of all, stop accepting turtles from friends who just pick them up. In fact, in my opinion, you should be actively discouraging people from doing this.
While you may have good intentions, I think that you don't have a full understanding of state laws & regulations or the multitude of other issues involved with collecting and releasing box turtles, namely the health risks and site fidelity considerations among other factors.

With this turtle, find out from your friend where he was field herping and return the turtle to that area. If you get your friend to really think about it, I bet he could remember where he found it in the first place. If he can remember what day, he can probably remember what area, and even what stretch of road. If he really does field herp, he'll know where he was.

You are not doing turtles any favors by translocating them. Do some more research. Get informed.

Blunt indeed, but very true and explicit. Sometimes the truth can seem nasty or condescending, although unintentional, but don't take it personally, it's just part of the process, and as usual Steph is spot on IMHO.
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Jeff Benfer

1.0 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.2 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 Okeetee Pantherophis guttatus

Box turtles are never too old to breed. If he has a pulse, he'll breed.