![]() One to two female or one male North American box turtle can be successfully maintained in an enclosure with at least 12 square feet of floor space. Housing Requirements Enclosure: Dimensions & Material Unfortunately, most health problems encountered are a result of poor husbandry and nutrition. Regardless of the species, proper care is essential to the long-term survival of these hearty reptiles. However, several subspecies exist and identification can be difficult. The ornate box turtle, the eastern box turtle, and the three-toed box turtle are commonly sold in the pet trade. These species currentlyhave broadly overlapping geographic ranges, and are sympatric throughoutmuch of the western part of the range of the three-toed and the easternpart of the range of the ornate.Box turtles are among the most popular reptiles kept as pets in the United States. Ornate box turtlesare more carnivorous than the three-toed, and prefer insects and soft-bodiedinvertebrates (worms, crayfish), but they will also eat fruits and berries.Ornate box turtles have a home range of about 5 acres, but the home rangesof several individuals may overlap.Īlthough details of their phylogeny are not available, the species of Terrapenein North America may exemplify allopatric speciation in a continental setting.They exhibit the typical pattern of one eastern species and one westernspecies (although in this case with considerable geographic variation ineach species), with divergence between the species in a variety of morphological,physiological, and behavioral characteristics. ![]() Mating typically occurs in the spring but may also occurin the fall (and because egg-laying usually occurs in the early summer,fall mating may mean that females can store sperm). They emerge in the spring with warmdays and rain. Ornate box turtles overwinter in burrows that may be up to 18 inchesdeep in sandy soil they may also enter the burrows of other animals (badgers,skunks, armadillos) to overwinter. It also practices behavioral thermoregulation,burrowing in loose or sandy soil to escape the heat. Like tortoises of thedesert, the ornate box turtle stores water in the urinary bladder, andin times of water stress can extract much of the water from the urine,forming a dense, dark urine. Becausethe ornate box turtle is more often exposed to hot, dry conditions (andlives in places with little shade) it is physiologically better adaptedto withstand heat and drought than the three-toed. The three-toed of course prefers the woods to the prairies,so these species differ in habitat preferences as well as morphology. Inthe eastern parts of its range it is found in open areas, even those surroundedby wooded habitats. The ornate box turtle is an inhabitant of prairies and savannas. Females are somewhat larger than males, and as in the three-toed,males have orange or red eyes and markings on the neck and front legs.Females lack these colorful markings. The ornate box turtle is similar in sizeto the three-toed, adults averaging about 10-12 cm in length, with recordsover 15 cm. ![]() The ornate box turtlenever has a mid-dorsal ridge. The carapace of ornatebox turtles is flattened relative to that of three-toed box turtles, whichis usually domed and may have a mid-dorsal ridge. ![]() The ornate box turtle has four toes onthe hind feet, and the inner toe and claw can be turned inward and areused to help males hold their position during mating. This pattern is on theplastron as well as the carapace. The ornate box turtle has a pattern ofyellow stripes and blotches on a dark background. The ornate box turtle and the three-toed box turtle are sympatric acrossmuch of their respective ranges these two species differ from one anotherin a number of characteristics. The ornate box turtle, however, doesnot cross the Rio Grande into Mexico (thus the river forms a geographicbarrier to its dispersal). A westernsubspecies, the Desert box turtle, occurs in southern New Mexico, southernArizona, and northwestern Mexico. In the east it ranges intomuch of Missouri, western Arkansas, and southwestern Louisiana, and inthe west it reaches eastern Colorado and eastern New Mexico. The ornate box turtle is common throughout much of the south-centralGreat Plains of the US, from Nebraska and southern South Dakota, throughKansas, Oklahoma, and practically all of Texas.
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