On the Wildside

by George Lavigne
illustration by George Lavigne

What moves really slow, is kind of ugly and locks up tighter than a Roxbury liquor store? No. It’s not a hard-top CJ-7. It’s the Eastern Box Turtle.

This little critter, known as Terrapene Carolina to herpetologists (that’s a person who studies reptiles and amphibians) may be on the road to extinction. Yet they are not listed as an endangered species. Threatened, maybe. Not endangered. For some reason, mankind has always troubled this poor little beastie. Back before any white people set foot upon this soil, this turtle was in quite a fix. A certain group of native Americans from the New York region harvested the Eastern Box Turtle for food and burial ceremonies. Neither of these uses was practical or appealing when you consider that the flesh was oft times toxic and during internment they were buried alive with the corpse.

More recently, this reptilian-rover has run into new dilemmas. Loss of habitat, over collection by hobbyists and numerous other problems have contributed to their decline in number. Here in Massachusetts, it has become a rare sight to see them in a field or on a road-side. Shame on us.

Maybe someday these armored omnivores will get the protection they deserve. Up until now these terrestrial terrapins have had only one effective defense and I’m afraid that pulling in their heads and shutting their unique hinged plastron is not going to save them from over-development.

So if you find one, cut it some slack. Take a picture to record your find or just plain leave it alone. With any luck it will live out its full 100 year life span. You should be so lucky.

See you on the wildside.