Reptile & Amphibian Forums

no i don't mean those cubes used to store things. harharhar. anyways I've always been impressed with how intelligent box turtles are from the stories I hear. Let me hear some of your stories about box turtle intelligence. I cannot tell any yet for I do not own a box turtle at the moment.

In 2004 I rescued a male boxie from the middle of a busy road. This guy only had three feet! He was missing his right front foot (not the leg, just the foot) Long story short, he could not dig. Which meant a bad scenero for hibernation. So I took him home and gave him run of the entire back yard, and boy did he run it! For a wild turtle he had a lot of personality. He would often come to the back door and climb up on the step to just watch us. If we approached the door, he would leave. As long as we ignored him he would watch. Kinda felt like we were the ones on display.

Few months later rescued a female from my parents dogs. Put in the backyard also. Things were great. No problems, and both boxies seemed happy. Then 1 week before Hurricane Ivan hit the area both became very aggitated and nervous. Lots of pacing. Of course I planned on bringing them in for the storm, but they had other ideas. The female dug out and the male followed. I 100% believe they knew that Ivan was coming and they "took to the hills."

No doubt, I would recgonize them if I saw them again.

Hmmm....I just realized that the two males I rescued this spring dissapeared right before Hurricane Dennis....now that makes for an interesting obervation. Anybody noticed odd behavior before a hurricane??

And before I catch any flack about picking up boxies off the road I have to ask, "Did you want me to point them toward the gas station or the grocery store?" What these guys were doing where I found them is beyond me. Years ago I almost stepped on one as I was going to my car in the hospital parking lot!! LOL! I think he was going on an asphault safari, because there wasn't anything else close to him!! (I did not leave him there by the way)

These guys are smart. and each one has its own personality.
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Jenea

1:3 Eastern Hognose
0:0:1 Florida Redbelly Snake
0:1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle
1:1 Red-eared Slider
2:0 Cats
1:1 Kids
1:0 Spouse

well I havent heard of animals acting strange before hurricanes, but I did hear that in Asia when that devastating tsunami hit, all the animals(including crocodiles) fled to high ground way before the tsunami struck. After the tsunami, the crocodiles took advantage of the situation and began to feed on the dead bodies and even went after living humans. Guess they realized that the humans that were alive couldn't really flee so they tried to take advantage. Unfortunately the only stupid thing they did was make their reputation even worse among humans.

Once I took my box turtle to the bar around the corner. I used to take him there on Fridays. I would put him on the bar and he would drink beer out of a soucer. Well, one night I had a little too much to drink. I tried to drive my car but it was obvious I would not make it home. So my boxie drove me home!!!! Thats' right and the kicker is my car is a stick. Have you ever saw a red ear slider drive a stick? Noooooooo, I don't think you did.

>>Few months later rescued a female from my parents dogs. Put in the backyard also. Things were great. No problems, and both boxies seemed happy. Then 1 week before Hurricane Ivan hit the area both became very aggitated and nervous. Lots of pacing. Of course I planned on bringing them in for the storm, but they had other ideas. The female dug out and the male followed. I 100% believe they knew that Ivan was coming and they "took to the hills."

I believe they knew it too. Why wouldn't they know? Animals have a lot more going on in those heads than a lot of people give them credit for.
When I was a kid I used to watch the Beverly Hillbillies & it always struck me as funny that the "normal" people wouldn't believe that Granny could predict the weather by watching the ants, birds, whatever. People would of course chalk that up to her being a hillbilly & it's ridiculous that she could predict weather, didn't believe she could but hey c'mon!
Stupid old comedy TV show or not, of COURSE animals know.
When thunderstorms are brewing here I see the birds vanish, the ants vanish but I'll see the box turtles come out because they want to walk in the rain.
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PHRatz

after that bar room incident I'm going out to the garage and get my hip boots it's getting a little deep now

I have quite a few stories that I've already posted somewhere on this board. I am in awe of them, their intelligence always blows me away.
Janie is one we took off a busy highway then even though she could've left here she didn't leave.
After watching her for a few days I don't believe she was wild, she'd been someone's pet before.
She stalks me for food. Just yesterday evening I went looking for her because I hadn't seen her for a couple of days. I thought she'd be wanting food. I knew where the others were, didn't see her so I walked around all the places she's known to be & called her name. Didn't see her but as I got to the steps of the porch I turned to have one last scan around the yard when I spotted her walking towards me. She did want food, she'd heard me. She's adorable!!
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PHRatz