Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm doing a school project for AP bio (what a drag-a project to do before the class even STARTS) but not so bad, because I got it approved to do the project on observations of box turtles in their natural habitat. No worries-I wouldnt even touch them-just observations and pictures. I live in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and have seen a few box turtles-ok 2 in my entire life, but I know there are some in the area we just moved to because our neighbors have one that they see in their yard sometimes. I need to get pics of at least a few and at least 1 baby, and i have to prove the pictures are mine by being in the picture and having someone else take it too. They have to be wild, and I dont know anyone with turtles I can use anyways. How can I find them? Where, when, everything. Must be a reasonable driving distance. I love turts, but don't seem to have any luck with finding the boxies and summer's already half over

I don't mean to rain on your parade, but it's not just a coincidence that you've only seen two box turtles in your life. They're very secretive and generally only come out in the open during the spring and early summer, to lay eggs and look for mates. Baby box turtles are hard-wired to stay completely hidden under leaf litter on the forest floor to avoid being eaten by predators. The adults spend most of their time the same way. You could spend years actively looking for a baby box turtle in the woods and never find one. I've stumbled across a few in my lifetime, but not because I was good at finding them. You have to be lucky and in the right place at the right time.

If you need pictures of box turtles in their natural habitat that other people have taken, you'll find plenty of them, or even pictures of captive-born baby box turtles hatching. If you need some of these, let me know. I (and plenty of others on this forum) have lots of those kinds of pictures. If you're determined to find them yourself, you'd do well to wait until after a rainy night, then go into a wooded area near a stream and just scour the ground, checking under low-lying shrubs and plants as you go. If you have a local state park, you could check with the rangers to see if they can help.

What a wonderful project but you will need the help of a wildlife rehabber because it is HARD to find adult box turtles and you will likely never see a baby one unless you live in the country.

Call an area wildlife rehab clinic and tell them what you are doing-maybe they will let you go with them to release a few turtles and you can have your picture taken with them-they are wild afterall

But if you are willing to spend hours and maybe days in the woods looking under bushes and fallen logs-you may find one if you are lucky. Check out this website to see how one man follows and where finds his box turtles-you'll get an idea of the type of woodscape turtles like to be in:
http://www.geocities.com/thesolorover/BoxtrackCMcoin.html
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Tess Cook
www.boxturtlesite.info