Eastern Box Turtles: The Long Goodbye
Habitat loss and fragmentation threatened the future of Eastern box turtles. Because they are so long-lived once they achieve adulthood, we often miss population declines until they crash. We see adult turtles … albeit in slowly diminishing numbers, but we don’t see the lack of juvenile and sub-adult recruits into the local population. Male box turtle #78, a resident of the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, illustrates the long goodbye of the Eastern box turtle species.
Male Eastern Box Turtle at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary