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What do you do if you find a box turtle in an area that it can no longer live in? I heard if you relocate them they leave the area that you put them in. I don't understand how that is possible. Do they try to find their old habitat? Why don't they settle where food and cover is plentiful?

>>What do you do if you find a box turtle in an area that it can no longer live in? I heard if you relocate them they leave the area that you put them in. I don't understand how that is possible. Do they try to find their old habitat? Why don't they settle where food and cover is plentiful?

One theory I've heard is that yes they will try to go back to their old territory. Another theory I've heard is that because they're in a new place, they don't know where the food is so they may starve to death in a new area.
I've mulled that one over for a while. I see how intelligent mine are, so I really have to wonder if they would starve to death in a new area because they are pretty darn resilient animals. I'd hope they don't starve to death in a new place but I know that some scientists are leaning toward the idea that they will.
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PHRatz

Heavy subject matter.

Home is all in how the turtle "looks" at it, not how you look at it. Their ideas of required resources might differ quite a bit from what we've interpreted them to be thus far. Tell a home body to readapt, and they normally look at you as though you're crazy. Box turtles might fit that category well.

Studies regarding ornate box turtles homing ability in Kansas (I think that was the state, maybe Nebraska) and similar, less structured observations on eastern box turtles in the northeast (completely forgot which state for that one) have shown displaced box turtles to be obligate wanderers. Very few displaced animals settled in during those studies.

Magnetic fields have been suspect for contributing to this for some time, as in marine turtles and birds (which use the fields to migrate instead of stay put). Experiments with magnets strapped to box turtles as they are moved away from their homes have shown curious results. Whether relocated box turtles have a hard time finding food and shelter becomes irrelevant if the urge to wander is driven by an intrinsic force like magnetic fields, which would likely be instilled during development - incubation - if the process is similar to what it seems in marine turtles.

Whether complex magnetic fields or simple down-home small mindedness is responsible for box turtles staying put, most of them do. When they are moved, everything changes, obviously. What seems a "better" patch of woods to us is a "different" patch of woods to them. Different is a challenge, and not every home body is up for challenge.

The delimma is not in relocating box turtles, as that has been determined as poor action for some time. Optimal box turtle habitat likely has its fair share of box turtles already (i.e., at carrying capacity). If it does not, there is some intrinsic or extrinsic factor we are not seeing (unnoticed human collection, habitat too restricted, missing subtle required resources, etc.). Putting relocated box turtles in a full house can cause problems, and putting relocated box turtles in a house that is falling apart outside of our radar will not work.

The delimma is thus in how urgent the need to remove the animal(s) is. That is up for the remover's consideration alone. So to speak, on your head.

One more important note about relocation - disease. We humans have a tendency to be negligent in considering disease unless it is a pandemic that the news shows can try to panic us over. Last year it was West Nile. This year it's that bird flu. If we can take those seriously, we should take others as such.

Peruse the info out there (of which there is now quite a bit) on upper respiratory tract disease in desert torts and the similar problem in some gopher tortoises. Some pancake torts are at risk from repatriated animals in east Africa. We seem to be getting better at facilitating disease in terrestrial turtles. Since there is virtually no information on how isolated box turtle "populations" are insofar as antibodies and prior pathogen exposure go, it is best to err on the side of complete caution and not create new neighbors.

When you take a box turtle from its habitat, it is safest to plan on keeping it in captivity. We tend to anthropogenize individual turtles, wanting them to be happy and have comfort. This is very considerate to the one animal(s), but very inconsiderate of all the rest where the relocated turtle is to be released. We have to think about the "whole," since good intentions towards individual animals have caused problems to repsective species as a whole before.

Ben that's an Excellent post !
Thanks,
Ric