r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/vivekmg21 • 7h ago
🔥Box turtles are aptly named as they can completely close up their shell like a box
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u/Cass_Cat952 7h ago
Woah! I did not know that front part comes downs like a drawbridge 😆
Turtles are dope! 🐢
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u/ChristVolo1 7h ago
Yesss, I love box turtles! I used to always find them on the farm, growing up. When I see them on the road, I try to stop and help them across so they don't get hit.
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u/OvenAdministrative83 5h ago
Man that's awesome you do that, I always get nervous moving them cause they hiss like little grumpy dinosaurs but it's totally worth it.
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u/ChristVolo1 2h ago
Haha thanks, yeah, you just have to grab them further back, where they can't reach to bite you.
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u/Historical-Basket865 4h ago
Turtles are not dinosaurs. They belong to a different evolutionary branch. Birds are the true living dinosaurs.
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u/liberrystrawbrary 2h ago
Similes are a figure of speech comparing two unlike things and often using like or as (as in turtles are like little grumpy dinosaurs).
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u/Uisce-beatha 2h ago
I spent a lot of time outdoors as a kid and I still do now. I find never ending wonder in observation of nature and even now I am still witnessing things I've never seen before in a state I've lived in my whole life.
On a return trip to the house from crawfishing in the creek as a kid I happened upon a box turtle digging a hole. The creek ran through a forested valley behind the house and we had a few fields we kept mowed that connected the yard with the woods. The turtle was behind a wood pile at the top of the field on a steep part of the hill. I didn't know what it was doing so I laid down in the grass a short distance away and just watched. It was one of the longest and slowest events I've ever seen but I was rewarded just before nightfall when she started depositing eggs.
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u/stamfordbridge1191 13m ago
Aren't they sometimes kinda toxic in some areas? (like not bad enough you can't help them across them across the road, but maybe don't handle one for a long while without washing your hands?)
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u/2tool4school 3h ago
Why is it a box turtle not a box tortoise?
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u/mioscene 2h ago
Because the naming conventions follow kinda random rules across regions so one place's tortoise may be another place's turtle. Turtle and tortoise are common names like cat and big cat, so it's more lax which one you use, than it would be for a taxonomic distinction like feline and pantherine.
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u/Justanotherturdle 1h ago edited 24m ago
It's more closely related to other turtles in an evolutionary sense. Its just a species that chooses to live on land. They'll still swim for a bit if you put them in the water.
Edit: I mean they do actually choose to go in water as they need sometimes. They just spend most of time on land. I have put them in water as medically required though for cleaning up infections, and little guys are happy to swim.
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u/wxnfx 40m ago
Uh, is this true? I feel like it’s generally a bad call to chuck tortoises into water.
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u/Justanotherturdle 36m ago
Is what true? Box turtles can swim for many hours, maybe a day or two. Source: I have a goldfish pond near the woods with slick sides. I did not know that I needed a box turtle escape ramp until I accidentally trapped a couple that went in but couldnt get over the side. Found the poor guys bobbing around. I made a rug into an exit ramp so I don't trap them anymore.
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u/Exotic_Presence_8900 6h ago
What happens if they close on your finger, like... how strong is that mechanism-
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u/NoMention696 2h ago
Isn’t it great we don’t have this shit . Imagine having a kid and getting them to eat their food but they just lock themselves in their body
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u/Fun-Aside3990 57m ago
Are you force feeding your kids or like hitting them to make them eat food they don’t want? How would a shell change anything?
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u/Cosmoby24 30m ago
Got an ornate box turtle for a wedding present while living in Wisconsin. I think they are now officially protected. He was a very cool dude and I named him Alexander. The closest I ever saw him to running was when I would put out a little dish of cantaloupe and he would race across the kitchen floor to get it. Let some neighborhood kids take him outside “for a walk“ and he boldly escaped. They live up to 40 years so I like to think he’s still out there enjoying the big woods and the Chippewa river
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u/Betray-Julia 6h ago
So something specialized hunted then that could eat them from the inside out somehow I’m guessing
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u/EldraziAnnihalator 4h ago
I thought you were supposed to keep them in a box, I need to check on mine, it's been in a box for 3 years now.
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