Turtle Vision

23/02/2026

Professional research is about to begin on the Ridge Nature Area. This year, the exciting news is that several groups will be very active:

Zoo Atlanta is evaluating some of my data base from the past 18+ years of dealing with the Eastern Box Turtle. My individual research is always carried out under a GA DNR Scientific Collector Permit, which I obtain prior to the beginning of each year. However, Zoo Atlanta has experienced wildlife research biologists on staff which will bring specalized expertise to data analysis.

Georgia Aquarium has staff that will be participating in the Eastern Box Turtle nesting this season, very much like they did last year. Both Aquarium staff and Zoo Atlanta staff are also looking into potential research which will be in addition to the joint programs.

Georgia Safari Conservation Park will be joining the overall research effort by creating an Eastern Box Turtle Head Start program at their facility, for a small number of hatchlings. A Head Start program will enhance the survival of hatchlings, beyond what can be obtained by our immediate hatchling releases. Last year, we released 76 hatchlings which provides a high percentage of survival based on the numbers - but hatchling losses are always high unless the babies released are large enough to avoid most predators.

Southern Conservation Trust has already started work to enhance previously used nesting areas which have been lost due to over-shading by dense tree saplings - removing close growing stands of fast-growing sweetgum trees opens the area to turtle nesting.

This last effort brings to light the fact that vegeetative succession, often thought to be a normal aspect of forest growth, sometimes creates difficulty for small critters such as box turtles. Enhancing small areas is not a negative for Piedmont Forests.

As is the case again this year, numerous volunteers will be assisting with the Eastern Box Turtle nesting season, but they wil also be helpful with many other projects. A truly valuable asset for any nature area.

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03/11/2025

Our box turtles have gone to cover so I started work on the data. The part I started was home range mapping for some of the turtles that had nested - my attempt to determine any relationship between home range and nest site selection. However, I ran into an unexpected detail. I found that 10 females had nested but no record of another find before or after they nested.

The photos show two large females, both over 500 grams. During my 18 years of searching the Ridge Nature Area, I somehow missed them. I have searched the nature area from corner to corner, finding a large number of turtles. There are 8 more out there just like these two. Where their home ranges are is a mystery to me.

This coming nesting season (June-July), I will be looking for any of this group of 10, plus 12 more that nested but were found one more time other than when nesting. If any of this group of 22 show up to nest, I will attach a radio transmitter and follow them to their home range.

Just when I start to believe I know a lot about the Eastern Box Turtle, I find evidence that there is a great deal of information about these amazing little creatures that waits to be discovered.

15/10/2025

The photo is Box Turtle Hatchling number 76. Along with #75, they were released today to a brush pile near Ginger Cake Creek.

Take a close look at the tip of this baby's nose. The white bit is the egg tooth that it used to break through it's egg shell.

Maybe some of the 76 from this year will make it to become adult turtles.

05/10/2025

The last of 30 Eastern Box Turtle nests has opened. Those nests had 100 eggs; 76 that hatched and released back to brush piles scattered around the Ridge Nature Area. Other years, we found in the range of 2.5 eggs per nest - this year that production is up to 3.3 per nest.

In prior years, the most hatchlings found was 48 so 2025 will stand out as a banner year. Many thanks to the volunteers that helped find and then protect the nests.

28/09/2025

The photo is a more-or-less normal male Eastern Box Turtle that I found today. But there was an unusual aspect to him. I was searching in dense Japanese Stilt-grass and when I saw him, he was close to the top, in some branches. He was moving forward then backward an inch or so. As I watched, he did this several times but wasn't making any progress. Sometimes, I have found turtles on top of a branch rocking a bit as they tried to climb over, so I reached down and picked him up.

But it was then that the situation became clear. When I picked him up, a female had his left rear foot clamped in between her top and bottom shell resulting in having one turtle in my hand and a second dangling below the first. After a couple seconds, she opened her shell enough to release him which dropped her into the grass.

Here's what was going on; they had just finished mating. Mating of Eastern Box Turtles is often a long process which starts with the male, chasing after the female, then mounting on top of the female where he takes small bites at her shell (the bites don't do any damage) and if the female accepts his efforts, he edges his shell back so he is almost vertical and slightly behind her. The female opens her shell to give him access, and the first thing he does is put his hind feet into the slot left open when she opens her shell.

He uses his feet to prevent the female from closing her shell while the actual mating takes place. At this time, he ends up on his back and stays in that position for a long time; sometimes as much as 2 to 3 hours. When the s***m packet is transferred, mating is complete. But getting back to normal positions isn't always that easy. The female closes her shell, tightly. If his feet are not out of the way, tough luck guy! She evidently isn't aware that he is stuck with one or sometimes two of his feet still trapped.

I have seen where the female ends up dragging the male behind her, and will do so as long as she keeps the shell tight. In today's case, the male was being held tight. Somehow, he had managed to get on top, enough so that he was near the top of the grass. But, he wasn't able to get away until I picked him up. I had no idea she was attached to his left rear foot and was surprise to see her dangling below. There is no way to know how long he had been up there making those small moves forward and then sliding back what I was looking at was a turtle unable to get free.

So, my good deed for the day was to save a male turtle's foot.

26/09/2025

Another good day for releasing 9 baby Eastern Box turtles. Our total number released now stands at 67. We have 4 more nests to open so we may reach 70 for the year.

The volunteer with me today was able to hold all 9, but I had to hurry the photo as the little critters were more than ready to find a new home. The one closest to her got out of her hands just after the photo was taken.

18/09/2025

Today, we released 10 more Eastern Box Turtle hatchlings. One new hatchling in the upper left corner is just out of it's egg and not ready to be released. That brings our total release to 58. I still have 8 more hatchlings in the process of escaping from their egg so those, together with 4 more nests to open, could get us to 70+ hatchlings for the year.

The second photo is of biologists from Zoo Atlanta and the Georgia Aquarium releasing the 10 hatchlings under a brush pile.

20/08/2025

Hatching has started!! One of the guest biologists opened two nests this morning. One nest had 2 eggs that are ready to hatch, just a bit slow opening up, the cage was replaced for another week or so. The second nest had 4 hatchlings working their way out of their shell and after a few days letting them finish absorbing their yolks, they will be released in a safe brush pile on the Ridge Nature Area. 29 more nests to check over the next few weeks.

10/08/2025

My spirit drifts, forever it drifts
Among the deep woods an I.
Here I commune with the trees
Always my home

Shines the sun or comes the rain,
No difference does it make.
Remembering has no meaning
For I am free.

28/07/2025

I have a data table for you related to the Eastern Box Turtle nesting for the years following the influx of armadillos into the Ridge Nature Area.

Year Protected Destroyed Totals
nests nests
2014 -- 17 17 (3)
2015 14 31 45 (6)
2016 17 43 60 (8)
2017 28 25 53 (12)
2018 25 17 42 (10)
2019 19 18 37 (3)
2020 35 22 57 (3)
2021 33 18 51
2022 7 13 20
2023 22 12 34
2024 27 25 52
2025 29 15 44
Tot. 256 256 512

I added an additional number to the first 7 years - the number of juvenile turtles from each year (so far). The last 6 years show no juveniles because the few baby turtles that survive spend their first 4-5 years hidden under brush and leaves. Once they grown large enough, they spend time wandering and become visible for me to find and record. Box turtle nests average (on the Ridge) just under 3 eggs per nest. That's around 750 hatchlings and another 750 eggs destroyed by predators; mostly armadillos.

There is a lot of conclusions, or possible conclusions, that can be drawn from all of those years of protecting nesting box turtles. First is that, just like all wildlife babies, surviving to become an adult is very difficult. For example, years 2016-1018 have survival to juvenile at 4.4%, 7.5% and 7.9%. These percentages assume that we found all of the nests on a 300+ acre nature area. Also, there is an assumption that all of the located hatchlings came from our protected nests.

Only a tiny fraction of the Eastern Box Turtle habitats in Georgia receive the level of protection that I and many volunteers provide. The populations of Eastern Box Turtles, throughout their habitats on the Eastern States are in serious trouble. Some of the Northern States have already listed their box turtles as Threatened or Endangered. We will likely have box turtles on the Ridge Nature Area for the foreseeable future, but most of Georgia will eventually lose this animal.

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08/07/2025

This female is not only a late-in-the-year nesting turtle, today, she started late and didn't finish until noon. It was a hot morning but she got it done. The photo is from my small camera that zooms in for closeup photographs while I am a good distance away not disturbing her - about 50 feet away for this shot.

Hatchlings that result from late nesting turtles have an even tougher time surviving since they hatch in mid to late October. Food is harder for any wildlife baby at that time of the year.

When I started to place a protective cage over the nest, I saw that she also had deposited a late egg. That means she had filled the nest hole and then put one more egg on top. The result is an egg about level with the surrounding ground. Such eggs have a near zero chance of survival but I piled on extra dirt and leaves to give it a chance, a slime chance, to survive.

Getting baby turtles from egg to adult is hard enough!