Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live up in the Blue Ridge Mtns in NC. I found my second turtle of the year crossing a road Sunday morning. It was a fairly busy state road, so I stopped to get it and let it go on the side of the road. It was young adult female. Here is the problem I encountered with this turtle and the last I found. Both were in a section (at least 150 yards) where there was steep (50'down) drop off on either side of the road. I had a choice of releasing the turtle on either side of where the dropp-off leveled out. It is very hilly around here and I was concerned that if I picked the wrong spot, they would be out of their territory. I moved this last turtle off to the side, went fishing for a few hours, and sure enough, there she was, back in the middle of the road again. I did not want to give some yahoo a second chance at her, so I brought here back to the farm where we live, about 10 mins away. What do you do in that situation where there is not a suitable place to move the turtle off to the side and let it complete its journeys? There are a lot of valleys and hollows around that area and I would be guessing where to put it. I did not want to have it crwl back out on the road again and get killed, so I let it go on our farm. It seems this would be a problem in recently developed areas also, where they are moving because their habitat has been destroyed. Where do you let those guys go?

This is a good question as I was in the same situation this week. My husband brought home a box turtle he found in the middle of a busy street. They are developments on either side of the road, so we released it on our 5 acres.

Hope it finds a good place to live out the rest of its life!
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0.1.0 snapping turtle
0.1.0 painted turtle
0.1.0 ornate box turtle
0.1.0 teddybear hamster
0.1.0 Australian shepard
3.2.0 children

Heres the problem with what has been done. The species of box turtle you guys are talking about is most likely Easter box turtle. This is a species of turtle that has been on the decline in recent years. I understand the desire to "help" out the box turtle crossing the road, and by no means am i going to say just leave in the middle fo the roead. However, it has been documented many times that box turtles have a home range of about four football fields if not slgihtly more (Bill Belzer). Thus, be removing them it takes away the area that they are acustomed too. They know where they are going, they know where that apple tree is, they know where the small stream tog et water is....understand. I know by taking them back to your farma dn releasing him you think you saved his life, but instead you now have caused 5 years of confusion and aggrivasion for him. It has been studied that eastern box turtles come back to the same hibernation spot year after year.....so this turtle that is 10 min. away from possibly where it hibernated is going to go looking for that spot. It might be tough to understand, but these creatures have a knack for finding that spot or at least going till they find it. Eastern box turtles have been on the decline because we have progressed our homes into wooded areas...we have paved our streets through a small field....this will never stop,b ut we can all take a huge step in aiding these guys out. You are asking me know what should i have done....whats best for the turtle is to remove him from the street. So i give you applause for doing that. But, this turtle had somewhere to go and we need not disturb that. Move the turtle to the other side of the road in the direction it is going. Place it in thick vegetaion or so that is hidden. This way it feels safe and can calm down and go about its business. They are wondeful creatures and we can learn many things about them....just we from a distance.

Thanks

Shawn
Wild Creations
Columbus Ohio
Turtle Homes since 1998