A Tale of Two Turtles

Diane was driving and I was riding shotgun on the Blue Ridge Parkway recently.  This beautiful, mountainous, winding road offers unparalleled scenery, opportunities for botanizing and wildlife viewing.  As we crested a hill, we saw an eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) crossing the road.  Diane swerved to miss the turtle and pulled over on the narrow shoulder.  I jumped out to try to help the turtle cross the road.  As I closed to within about 20 yards of the box turtle two cars topped the rise and were bearing down on the plodding reptile. 

Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) in North Carolina

Eastern box turtles range from the Great Lakes and New England south to Florida and from the eastern seaboard to the Mississippi River.  Several other sub-species of the box turtle can be found in Florida, the Gulf coast and west to the Great Plains.  Box turtles have a high domed carapace that is distinctly marked with bright yellow.  Box turtles are called box turtles because their lower shell, the plastron, has a hinged section they can close and withdraw their head and legs for protection, as if in a box.  Box turtles females have yellow eyes while the males have fierce orange eyes. With the exception of tortoises, box turtles are the most terrestrial of North American turtles spending most of their time walking rather than basking on logs in a pond.  Box turtles have a varied diet that includes fruits, small animals and even mushrooms that are poisonous to humans.  Box turtles are potentially long-lived.  Captive box turtles have lived in excess of 100 years but most animals in the wild do not reach such an advanced age.  One of their major causes of death is automobiles.  Eastern box turtle populations have declined and the species now listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Vulnerable, one step from endangered. 

Back to the Parkway.  Two cars came over the rise, the first one straddled the turtle but the second car hit the turtle directly with left front wheel.  The sound of the tire crushing the turtle was awful, like a ceramic bowl full of bread dough dropped on the floor.  As soon as it happened, I wheeled around.  I did not want to see the aftermath.  The driver of the second car slowed, rolled down the passenger-side window and asked, “Did I hit something?” I had a one-word answer.  “Turtle”. 

A Clemson University researcher placed rubber turtles on a busy road and found 7 drivers out of 267 deliberately hit the fake turtles in one hour.  I cannot say if the death of the box turtle on the Parkway was intentional but these results of the study are disturbing. 

A week later Diane and I were in Florida visiting Merritt Island.  The island is a complex of marshes, woodlands and beaches that are protected by a National Wildlife Refuge, a National Seashore and the Kennedy Space Center.  Merritt Island is one of the premier birding spots in Florida and we were seeking the Florida Scrub-Jay.  Once again, Diane was driving and I was in the passenger seat when we spotted another Florida native, a gopher tortoise.  Once again, a reptile was crossing a road.  Once again, Diane pulled over and I jumped out to try to get a cold-blooded creature across a road.  A pickup truck was coming.

Gopher tortoise (Gopherus polypemus) on Merritt Island, Florida

Gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) live on the Coastal Plain of the Southeast from South Carolina to Louisiana and down the Florida peninsula.  Like box turtles, the gopher tortoises have a high domed carapace but it is gray or dark brown in color.  Gopher tortoises eat plant material like saw palmetto berries, grass and even the pads of Opuntia cactus.  Their front legs are massive with impressive claws and with rear legs described as elephantine.  Those front legs allow these tortoises to dig burrows where they can escape the heat or shelter from cold.  Other animals use gopher tortoise burrows including eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, armadillos and Burrowing Owls.  Like box turtles, gopher tortoises are classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN. 

Fortunately for this tortoise, the driver of the pickup truck stopped.  I scooped up the gopher and moved it to the other side of the road.  The tortoise dodged that truck.

I cannot stop for every reptile crossing the road.  But, when it is moderately safe, I will try to help turtles across.  Sometimes it works.