I have at least three box turtles resident on my property: an adult male,
an adult female, and a three-inch juvenile which might be from last year. I
tend to find them separately every few months, especially during spring rains,
although I happened to see all three this past weekend.
My property has a fair amount of thickets, shrubs, native plantings and
tree cover, but it's something of an island within a matrix of lawn-obsessed
suburbia. The adult male and female both have old damage on their shells,
which I assume is from past lawnmowers, and several of my neighbors have riding
mowers, large dogs and/or a mania for broad open spaces of grass and little
else.
And very sadly, earlier today I discovered that the female box turtle
recently laid at least a dozen eggs, which were dug up last night by expert
paws and licked clean. The culprit was probably a grey fox, although raccoons,
opossums, domestic cats and stray dogs also circulate through the neighborhood.
So my question is for anyone who works with box turtles or backyard
conservation: is there a way to ensure that the existing turtles don't fall
victim to a lawnmower, or a neighbor's dog, or some other predator? There's
enough appropriate habitat to keep them nearby, but I worry that sooner or
later a box turtle will wander in the wrong direction, and I'd like to prevent
that if possible.
- J. A.
