It's easy to tell the difference between male and female box turtles in a few ways: the males have very bright, orange-ish spots on their legs and face, as well as red eyes. The females are more muted and brown/yellow, with brown eyes.
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| Female on top, male on bottom Photo from www.austinturtlepage.com |
This little guy also had quite an impressive notch taken out of the front of his shell - I wonder what happened to him at one point in his life? Small, identifying marks like this help me keep track of turtles that we find around here. So far, I don't think I've seen the same turtle twice. Cool beans!
Also, I have a new bumper sticker that I put on both of our vehicles...I think this says it all:
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4 comments:
Those turtles are very pretty. My last experience with handling turtles this size was when I was a very young child. My dad brought home some Snapping Turtles from a fishing trip. He put them in a washtub in the back yard, though I don't know what for. I remember his warning for us kids not to put our fingers in the water or play with them. Like most children, I had to find out the reason, so I went straightaway and started fooling around with the turtles. I quickly learned the were called "Snapping Turtles" because they tend to latch on to human fingers. I seem to recall my dad having to cut the head off the one that was clinging to the tip of my finger! I really enjoyed your post!
Thank you Lynn; what a great story! Snapping turtles are NOT cute, LOL!
Love the stickers on your cars!
Thanks Mary! We save a lot of turtles while driving around.
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