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June 21, 2001 - A tribute to the box turtleThe Suffolk Times • June 21, 2001 tribute to -the box Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh In the country years ago, turtles were part of every child's life. Today, with our whirling lawnmowers, speeding cars and ever -encroaching development, our once - common box turtle has become much, much less common. I THINK I COULD MAKE UP a calen- dar of events that take place in the natural world just from the telephone calls I receive each week. This week it was turtles, box turtles to be exact. They were once very common but today they are becoming a rar- Focus ity, as man's activities have ON taken them to a NATURE point of real by Paul concern. gh In some of Stoutenbur my research on the common box turtle, I found that in 1933 a man collected 30 of them in a short time in Huntington just by going out and looking for them in a muddy area. I didn't do anything quite that good but when 1 was a xia we could always find box turtles in the woods. I think I've probably told this tale before, but down in Fleets Neck in Cutchogue, when it was first being developed, the -roads were all dirt except for Pequask Avenue. On those dirt roads we barefooted kids used to race turtles. We'd just go out in the woods and pick them up and bring them back, line three or four of them up and race them. The turtles didn't always cooperate, as they would often scoot off to one side or the other, unconcerned about our race. The box turtle is quite handsome, with its yellow markings on its high - dome shell and head. It's mostly ter- restrial but I've found it occasionally in the water enjoying a swim or just again. And if things don't 'go quite right (too cool a summer), they'll remain in their eggshells until spring, when they will hatch out. The adults hibernate by digging in some soft spot in the duff of the woods, where they'll sleep away the winter. Box turtles eat a variety of foods, from insects to worms to berries of all sorts. They're particularly fond of wild strawberries and, as I mentioned before, mushrooms. I once saw one eating a red mushroom; what a pic- ture it would have been and me with- out my camera. Probably the most dangerous time for a turtle is when it first comes out of its eggshell, because at that time it is still soft and fair game for herons, crows, skunks, raccoons, foxes, etc. Turtles of all kinds can grow to a ripe old age; 30 to 60 years is average, with some reaching up to the 100 -year mark. They are true replicas of an age before the dinosaur. They have very few enemies, probably their biggest, as I've mentioned before, being man with his lawnmower, his speeding cars and the curse of so much developed Our box turtle is a true representa- tive of our declining wildlife, which, once abundant, is now harder and harder to find. the ditterence in the sexes is that the males have bright red eyes and the females have brown or gray eyes. You can also tell by looking on the bottom of the shell. The male's bottom shell is concave so that it fits on the back of the female when mating. It helps keep, him from slipping off. You have to see it to believe it. This mating ritual can be a fierce battle as many turtles will fight one another over the female. What they try to do is flip their opponent over on his back and leave him with feet and head waving in midair. In the mean- time the winner takes off with the g prize. If conditions are right and the does not have webbed feet ground is hard and there's something like our water turtles do, but to grab onto, the turtle can usually has long claws that facilitate right itself. But should the ground be digging. It used these claws sandy and soft, with nothing to grip when it digs its in- ground nest onto, it may stay there until death where it drops its four to six takes over. This is one reason why we cream - colored eggs. It was often find bleached turtle shells in the this egg - laying activity that woods, the results of one of those one of my calls was about this mating duels to the death. last week. The caller had The eggs are laid in May or June found a turtle digging in his and remain in the ground, where the front yard, but, sorry to say, it are incubated by the heat of the sun. didn't persist. Evidently some- In the fall, if all things go right, little thing was wrong; the soil was half - doilar -size turtles will emerge, too cool or too hard, and it only to hibernate back into the only half completed the job of ground until the next year when the digging its nest. It probably wandered off and has, by now, warmth of spring brings them out laid its eggs in a more suitable spot. This turtle can pull itself completely within its shell, leaving no tail, legs or head outside, which is quite unusual for turtles. Yet, there have been times when I've seen it after it found something good to eat, like berries or mush- rooms, and has stuffed itself so much that it couldn't get back in its shell.It sort of squeezed out all around the edges. When asked by an inquiring child, "How can you tell whether a baby is a boy or girl ?" a clever adult might reply, "The one with blue booties is a boy and the one with pink booties is a girl." Well, with turtles it's a bit differ- ent from that. The way you can tell again. And if things don't 'go quite right (too cool a summer), they'll remain in their eggshells until spring, when they will hatch out. The adults hibernate by digging in some soft spot in the duff of the woods, where they'll sleep away the winter. Box turtles eat a variety of foods, from insects to worms to berries of all sorts. They're particularly fond of wild strawberries and, as I mentioned before, mushrooms. I once saw one eating a red mushroom; what a pic- ture it would have been and me with- out my camera. Probably the most dangerous time for a turtle is when it first comes out of its eggshell, because at that time it is still soft and fair game for herons, crows, skunks, raccoons, foxes, etc. Turtles of all kinds can grow to a ripe old age; 30 to 60 years is average, with some reaching up to the 100 -year mark. They are true replicas of an age before the dinosaur. They have very few enemies, probably their biggest, as I've mentioned before, being man with his lawnmower, his speeding cars and the curse of so much developed Our box turtle is a true representa- tive of our declining wildlife, which, once abundant, is now harder and harder to find.