rogerbirkhead's Favorites

Description:

Dark brown turtle with a high-domed carapace and yellow to brown patterning. It is enjoying a Suillus mushroom for lunch. Despite it's name, the Common Box Turtle is no longer considered so common. It is labeled a Vulnerable species (IUCN Red List) as populations of this species are on the decline due to human development, habitat destruction, and the international pet trade.

Habitat:

Located at the base of two ridges in very damp soil (flood plain) surrounded by hardwoods and ferns. Feasting on a Suillus mushroom.

Notes:

This is possibly the Terrapene carolina carolina subspecies?

Adult male / Captured on Rabbit Path Rd in Alna Twp by Lynne Flaccus on 7/17/2018 / released at same location on 7/31/18 / collected nail samples for DNA / Habitat is mature hardwood forest bordered by shrubby powerline ROW

Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, subphylum: Vertebrata, Class: Reptilia, Order: Testudines, Species: Box Turtle.

The distinguishing features I saw was a broad flat body, legs splayed out and bent at the knee, and the scutes on the shell.

I observed this animal in Mountain Home, AR on April 24, about 1 in the afternoon. Seen among the rocks in the woods. It was on top of another turtle.

WARNING: This observation is Rated "5F" (another "Fossilized Foto From the Fingers Files"!), recently unearthed from the rich Cretaceous Period deposit that I call my basement, haha! This is me and my cousin Pete (@jdanch) as 16 year-old kids having an awesome day in the beautiful New Jersey Pine Barrens, finding 2 adult Northern Pine Snakes within a a few yards of each other. Both of us went on in our careers to contribute much understanding to and validation for the State Threatened level of protected status for this species in NJ - with presence/absence surveys, radio-telemetry studies, home range/hibernaculae/distance requirement assessments, and more. I have seen hundreds of individuals of this species in all growth stages, from egg to 6' 7" adults - (including a one-eyed, adult female wild albino!), and engaging in virtually all their behaviors in the wild - and after nearly 50 years, the thrill I get when I encounter this majestic member of the genus Pituophis in the field still (to paraphrase the old-school rock 'n roll band, "Foreigner") - "feels like the first time"! Hope some of you iNat herpers will get a kick out of this 40-some year old "blast from the past" encounter of mine!

We hiked the High Falls trail in Cheaha National Forest and at the falls there were thousands of centipedes!!! In the photos of the waterfall there are brown patches along the left hand side of the waterfall. Those are centipedes. There were also mats of centipedes in the water.