Common Box Turtle

Here's a Common Box Turtle plodding through the springtime vegetation. I could probably also label it an Eastern Box Turtle, which is the subspecies of the Common Box Turtle most likely to be found in New Jersey. (The main exception to this would presumably be any other subspecies brought to NJ as a pet that either escaped or got released.)

Remember yesterday's post about the Mayapple that had either an unopened flower bud or an unripened fruit? It turns out that Common Box Turtles are 1 of the few animals known to eat Mayapple fruits. Unfortunately although I saw the Mayapple and the turtle approximately the same time of the day, they weren't close enough for me to gauge whether the turtle had any interest in eating the bud/fruit. Had the turtle eaten it, we could say with confidence that it was a fruit.

I'm told that Common Box Turtles are an excellent way for Mayapples to spread. The turtles are likely to poop out the seeds a fair distance from where they ate them, introducing the Mayapple seeds to a new area to colonize. Passing through an animal's digestive system is frequently a good way for plants to spread; another example are the many birds that eat berries and end up spreading those plants wherever they end up flying.

Not unlike some tortoises (who are not especially close relatives), Common Box Turtles can live a long time. Though this might be a statistical outlier, 1 individual was known to have lived 138 years. 

June 3, 2023 at John Clyde Native Grassland Preserve
Photo 300858525, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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