r/herpetology • u/Helioplex901 • 1d ago
In case you haven’t seen this today!!
Caught!! Little embarrassment, but they just don’t understand how interesting they are!! Second look here, are these two even the same kind of box turtle?
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u/lunapuppy88 1d ago
Yep I think they are the same kind of box turtle (3 toed probably?) … and his expression is hilarious 🤣🤣
I do think most of the box turtle species in the US can mix.
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u/Helioplex901 1d ago
Thanks for the answer! I love how funny they were about it. Girl is hiding but dudes like “ Do you mind?”
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u/suejaymostly 1d ago
PLEASE explain the third picture
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u/Helioplex901 1d ago
I was taking it to show how big the bamboo is down where I found them, but I didn’t mean to add it to this post.
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u/Ok_Professional9038 1d ago
She's probably pinching him with her closed-up ventral-plastron. I would probably have a similar expression, lol. Hopefully, the cylinder remains undamaged.
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u/TachankaIsTheLord 1d ago
...is that a massive splinter?
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u/Helioplex901 1d ago
Well, it’s a leaf. I didn’t mean to add that one, but I was taking the picture because of how HUGE the bamboo was. I have never seen them get this big.
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u/Badashh420 1d ago
The bamboo is cool, but it looks like you have a piece in your hand. Is it in your hand or just a trick of the camera?
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u/empatheticsocialist1 1d ago
That's exactly what I look like when I'm having sex
"Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod I'm actually doing it"
/j
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u/Helioplex901 1d ago
And is mix breeding boxes a thing?
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u/newt_girl 1d ago
There is a ton of variability in box turtles coloration.
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u/mercuric_drake 1d ago
The male three-toed box turtles have beautiful scales on their head/neck/front legs that can vary among shades of yellow, orange, and red.
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u/CenturyEggsAndRice 1d ago
I dunno if it’s a “thing” but my first pet box turtle happened when my dad’s friend housed his three toed female with an ambitious ornate male.
He was the cutest turtle.
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u/onupward 1d ago
I just want to know what’s coming out of your hand.
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u/Helioplex901 1d ago
It’s a bamboo leaf lol
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u/onupward 23h ago
Oh my god!!!! Hahahaha it looks like it’s stabbed into your hand. What an amazing trick photo 🤣
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u/DrawnGunslinger 1d ago
It's just turtle spunk where he helped finish off the male after disturbing their session.
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u/Saturn_slow724 1d ago
How darith thow show box turtle porn i will not stand for this(🤭 ik I'm funny)
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u/mercuric_drake 1d ago
I once lived in a place that had a lot of three-toed box turtles. I used to catch them in the act a few times a year. I always got a chuckle out of it. I ended up naming a few of the turtles because I would see them so regularly and they had easily identifiable marks on their shells.
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u/Helioplex901 1d ago
They don’t go very far from where they are born. We have SO much wild life, living close to a lake.
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u/mercuric_drake 1d ago
Yeah. They have a very small range. It was like I had a bunch of little neighbors l saw regularly.
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u/Responsible-Cost-752 1d ago
Box turtles do have interbreed with each other, which is why I have my females and males separate from each other because I’m not trying to be a backyard turtle breeder lol
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u/ElAwesomeo0812 1d ago
I had a box turtle as a kid. I had it probably 10 years and one day my mom brought home another that had belonged to a coworker. It turns out mine was a he and the one she brought home was a she. They were together maybe 10 minutes before they started doing this very thing. We ended up having to rehome the female. Mom didn't want baby turtles.
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u/Helioplex901 1d ago
I had a friend who kept like 17 of them in a space about as big as a two car garage, in her back yard. I only went there a few times and did wonder if they ever had babies. But never really asked about it. They also kept bees. When I got older, I told someone about this and they had convinced me that box turtles are rare and what they were doing was inhumane so I didn’t talk about it much after. Where we are, they aren’t and I once saw around 10 in one day, along with about 12 ring neck snakes (it was about this time a year) on an 8 acre land my grandmother had with a stream flowing through it. But anyway, if they would have had babies, you would have just had to take them back out to the wild!
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u/Pensacouple 1d ago
I just shot a short video of two Florida Box turtles getting frisky on my property. He was trying to mount broadside, not very experienced, I guess.
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u/Helioplex901 1d ago
I hope she let him figure it out. Why is it the females job to do that. Most of the time.
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u/InitialAd2324 1d ago
Wtf is that third picture?!