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The American box turtle is considered one of the most desirable of the Chelonians. This website is dedicated to the natural history, proper husbandry and conservational facts of the American box turtle. A personal goal for this web site is to help educate people about the American box turtle species and what is entailed to care for them at home or in the wild; including the many things that threaten its very existence.
Many of the box turtle populations are diminishing due to loss of habitat and exploitation. Habitat losses are due to: urban sprawl, farming, big corporation building, logging, roadway construction, just to name a few. The largest problem is exploitation. These animals are being collected from the wild in most cases hundreds at a time. Many states have regulations for the collection for the box turtle from the wild, but some do not.
The demand for box turtles is much higher than the supply. There are not many box turtle breeders out there to keep up with the supply. The law states, turtles over 4" inches can be collected from the wild or sold from a pet store. There fore, the animals are being collected from the wild are adults. Each adult female produces a couple hundred eggs in their life time. Maybe only four turtles will become adults out of a hundred eggs laid. For every wild collected female there are a hundred less eggs in the wild. A large percentage of these animals are in fact shipped over seas to the Asian and European markets for the pet trade, as well as medicinal usage.
Many species of reptiles are bred in captivity by the thousands each year by breeders (e.i. the leopard gecko). Hopefully, more individuals will breed box turtles to ease up on the wild populations. A reptile enthuasist with a collection of box turtles with intentions on breeding a small amount of them for educational use and the shear enjoyment of raising baby box turtles should be proud of their cause. These box turtles should be adopted from the local Herpetological Society or bought from other people if at all possible. Unfortunately, 3/4 of the animals received by pet stores need veterinary care immediately. Browse the rest of this site and please let me know what you think.
If you have any information that you feel should include or if you have any photographs or an article you wrote or a personal box turtle account you'd like to share, please mail it to me to post up on this site. This site is educational use only. Thank you.
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