By September I had located 3 Eastern box turtles on the vacant property: Ruby, Fannie, and Hector. That is also about the time that things started to gain some momentum. Within the next couple of weeks, after expanding the search area somewhat, I was once again out turtle hunting one day, when the lace of my shoe caught on a twig and pulled loose. I crouched down to tie my shoe, and found myself saying “Oh, Hello!” to a turtle that was inches away from my foot.
I picked it up, and resumed my search, but before I had tiptoed very far I happened to look across a small clearing, and there was another one! Two more adult males to add to the refugee population back at home. Ernie and Mort had arrived.
Life with box turtles started to get a little hectic at this point. I noticed that the side of Hector’s face was looking a bit swollen and that he was pausing to gape, opened mouthed, now and again. This was a sign of an ear infection (the swelling) and possibly an upper respiratory infection (the gaping). I took him to the one reptile vet in the area, who recommended putting Hector on antibiotics. It was also suggested that he be over-wintered indoors where he could be kept warm, and where he would stand a better chance of recovering.
I enlisted the help of the resident husband-carpenter, who went ahead and built a roomy, fully insulated indoor turtle set-up that would be relatively easy for us to keep clean, warm, adequately humid, and appropriately lit. Luckily for me and the turtles, he really enjoys projects like this, so he had himself a blast designing and building “Turtle Town”.
4’ by 8’, with 2’ high walls, a ceramic heat emitter at one end, a swimming pool (complete with ramped surfaces by which turtle could enter and exit the water), a smooth stone for basking, and a log shelter with sphagnum moss for moisture retention and burrowing material), full spectrum lighting with UVA/UVB, and a square meal every other day, Hector would be fairly comfortable for the few months he would have to be recovering.
It was a good thing that we built this ‘infirmary’, because, the next (and final for that year as it turned out) turtle that I found on the property was very under-weight and also ended up staying indoors for the winter. This young male, who I called Lester, was so lightweight that he almost felt like an empty shell.
By then it was late October, getting chilly overnight, wild box turtles were going in to hibernation. With mixed feelings, the search was ended.
It was at about this time that I found out that when people find out that you know something about certain animals, you become THE person to call. Sure enough, I soon heard from a co-worker, who had found a badly injured box turtle and would I please do something about him. Since I knew from experience that it was unlikely that she would take it to vet, I agreed to take it for her.
The box turtle in question was a very old male, with a very recently gnawed off rear foot. The would was still ragged and raw, so we took him to the vet right away, where they cleaned and trimmed the wound, gave us a bottle of saline for keeping the wound clean, and sent us home with him.
Turtle Town had three residents that winter: Hector, Lester, and the ‘out of area’ turtle.
On a side note: all of the box turtles here have been given the sort of name that one’s aunts and uncles of a certain generation would have had, so this old timer had to have a really old timer’s name.
After scratching my head for a while on what to name him, I finally had a brainstorm, and upon conferring with my husband, we decided call this one Mr. Gower.
At the close of the 2003 box turtle sweepstakes, we had rescued two young females, three males, and had a fourth male brought to us. The four healthy ones would hibernate outside, and the three others would over-winter in Turtle Town, where the warmth would keep their metabolism revving and speed the healing process.
Now we had to get to work on creating a hibernaculum. This consisted of a sloped sided trench, two feet deep, and back filled with loosened soil (the heavy clay removed from the hole would likely compact and possibly smother the turtles during the winter).
Mixing it with peat moss and fallen leaves loosened the soil sufficiently, so the trench was refilled with the loose mixture, more leaves were piled over the top, and a log ‘roof’ was added, with more leaves over that. The intent was to create a place where the turtles could nestle in easily, go as deep as needed to escape the coldest temperatures, a place where temperatures would remain somewhat steady (in contrast with sharp fluctuation of air temperatures), and where the soil was loose enough to permit gas exchange, and serve as insulation. The log roof served the dual purpose of holding the leaf pile in place, and helping to shed excess water during rainfall.
After much digging and playing in the dirt, Ruby, Fannie, Ernie and Mort had a place to spend the next few months. We let them dig themselves in to this shelter, which they did readily and to much applause, and then we positioned the chicken wire pen over top of the whole thing.
We were all good to go until spring. The time had come to plan and build Turtle World. As we now had two amputees, it would have to be a handicap-access Turtle World.
10:17 AM PT: Chapter One can be found here:
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Chapter Two can be found here:
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