Baby Box Turtle

I’m a big fan of turtles and was happy to find a young Eastern Box Turtle near my fence row clearing site.  Box Turtle eggs typically hatch from late August through mid October, so this guy has only had a few months of active life.  Despite his youth, he’s grown enough to replace the rounded features of a hatchling with those of a wizened old turtle.

The youngster was aware of my presence and froze in place as I approached.  The baby seems in perfect health with bright eyes, good color and signs of growth.  The plates covering the shell, called scutes, are constantly replaced by the formation of new scutes from beneath.  As the new, larger scutes form, the space between the old scutes expands.  Eventually, the old scute is shed and the new one becomes visible.

It’ll be a while before the shell gets large enough to allow the turtle to completely withdraw inside.  It may be several years before the turtle reaches a size that reduces its vulnerability to predation.

Chances are that this baby will not make it to the end of summer, but at least it’s got a good start.  Most eggs are lost to predators before they hatch and the hatchlings are on the menu for all sorts of animals.  Since I found one baby, that means the nest was probably untouched and there should be another four or five siblings that made their ways into the world.  I hope at least one is lucky enough to reach adulthood.

Even though he’s grown a bit since hatching, the turtle is still a tiny thing.  That’s my thumb beside the baby. 

Here’s the location of the find.  I guess I’m lucky that the search image of a turtle shape was firmly planted in my mind at an early age.  I stopped walking the instant I caught sight of the turtle, but it took a second for my conscious mind to realize what I was seeing.  The baby is in the center foreground of this shot.  You can see that with everything there was to look at, the turtle could easily have been overlooked.

I couldn’t determine the cause of this irregularity in the shell.  It looks like a surface deformity that will be shed with the scutes.  It will certainly be a way of identifying this individual should we meet again any time soon.

My traditional turtle mug shot will not help in future identification.  The pattern will go through several changes before developing its more enduring adult form.  Finding this baby makes me hopeful that the Blue Jay Barrens Box Turtle population is healthy and stable.

A Camera Critters submission.