Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my sons friends is moving into a condo and can't keep his whole collection of desert ornates. He brought 5 smallish ones over yesterday. Suddenly I went from a pair of adults and a pair of hatchlings to a whole herd of turtles.....9 of them.

Here's a couple of group pics....

Here's my two favorites of the new ones, both females (I think).....

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Vichris
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane"- Marcus Aurelius

Vichris Variables

Nice group! I'm thinking my female ornate may be a desert after seeing those pics, but I can't tell those two subspecies apart.
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Cliff

My Collection:
0.1 Florida Box Turtle
2.2 Eastern Box Turtles
1.1 Ornate Box Turtle
0.0.1 Desert Ornate Box Turtle
1.1.1 Redfoot Tortoises
2.1 Russian Tortoises
1.0.1 African Sulcata Tortoises
1.0 Burmese Python
0.1 Virginia Opossum
1.0 German Boxer
1.0 Pit Bull
1.1 Chihuahuas

Actually, the two new females look like Ornates(T.o.ornata)...based on color, pattern, and size. Identification can be tough with ornata, and locality is always your best identifier.

Either way, they're pretty.

The local for the parents of the new 5 were from around Clovis NM. Clovis is in east central NM on the Texas border. I'm not where I can access my feild book so I can't look it up to see if that area of the state is ornate or desert ornate habitat.
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Vichris
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane"- Marcus Aurelius

Vichris Variables

I found some data that indicates that a natural intergade of ornates and desert ornates occurs in in the eastern plains of New Mexico and part of west Texas.

Here's the link. Check out page 9

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/projects/scp/assessments/ornateboxturtle.pdf

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Vichris
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane"- Marcus Aurelius

Vichris Variables

Sounds like a nice problem to have, if you have the space. They look like a nice group.