{"id":14714,"date":"2014-05-02T21:56:53","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T02:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=14714"},"modified":"2014-05-02T21:56:53","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T02:56:53","slug":"first-eastern-box-turtle-of-2014-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=14714","title":{"rendered":"First Eastern Box Turtle of 2014 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-closeup-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14718\" title=\"Sierra Exif JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-closeup-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"382\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-closeup-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-closeup-480-300x238.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Male Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Turtle Journal team found our first Eastern box turtle (<em>Terrapene carolina carolina<\/em>) of the 2014 season at noon on Thursday, May 1st, in an upland woods on Outer Cape Cod. \u00c2\u00a0As pictured above peering through the partially closed hinged plastron, the turtle&#8217;s bright red eyes confirm his masculine gender.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-002-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14724\" title=\"post bt 1110 002 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-002-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-002-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-002-480-300x288.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Eastern Box Turtle #1110 in Wellfleet Woodlands<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We had committed to search a wooded upland property off Old Kings Highway in Wellfleet for Eastern box turtles. \u00c2\u00a0As we well know, this spring has been especially chilly and box turtles have remained inactive, lingering in hibernacula, and delaying the timing for this sweep. \u00c2\u00a0Because \u00c2\u00a0the forecast promised temperatures in the upper 50s accompanied by torrential rain, the Turtle Journal team selected Thursday as the first viable opportunity to find box turtles on the site. \u00c2\u00a0And so we did.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-025-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14726\" title=\"Sierra Exif JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-025-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"486\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-025-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-025-480-296x300.jpg 296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Don Lewis Discovers Eastern Box Turtle #1110<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As we swept these woodlands, we looked for box turtle &#8220;forms,&#8221; which are shallow depressions covered by grass, leaves and debris. \u00c2\u00a0We sometimes call these forms &#8220;garages&#8221; because box turtles &#8220;park&#8221; themselves inside. \u00c2\u00a0Eastern Box Turtle #1110 had left its most recent form and was lazing in the warm rain, rehydrating after a long, hard winter brumation. \u00c2\u00a0His domed bright yellow shell seemed quite gaudy in contrast to the surrounding pine needles, oak leaves and winter grass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-001-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14722\" title=\"post bt 1110 001 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-001-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-001-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-bt-1110-001-480-300x243.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Sue Wieber Nourse Examines Male Eastern Box Turtle #1110<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The turtle proved shy and &#8220;boxed&#8221; himself up tightly with his hinged plastron. \u00c2\u00a0Still, we could easily identify his gender based on the concavity in his abdominal scutes and confirmed later by his bright red eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-carapace-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14716\" title=\"Sierra Exif JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-carapace-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"627\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-carapace-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-carapace-480-229x300.jpg 229w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Male Eastern Box Turtle #1110 Carapace (Top Shell)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-plastron-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14720\" title=\"Sierra Exif JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-plastron-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-plastron-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/post-box-turtle-1110-plastron-480-258x300.jpg 258w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Male Eastern Box Turtle #1110 Plastron (Bottom Shell)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Male Eastern Box Turtle #1110&#8217;s carapace (top shell) measured 14.9 centimeters (5.9 inches) long and 12.3 centimeters (4.8 inches) wide. \u00c2\u00a0He weighed 571 grams (1.26 pounds). \u00c2\u00a0His girth (bottom to top) measured 6.8 centimeters (2.7 inches) at the hinge. \u00c2\u00a0This hinged plastron provides a survival edge for box turtles when confronting a predator. \u00c2\u00a0The anterior (front) and posterior (back) sections of the plastron swing on the hinge to close up like a sealed box &#8230; giving this turtle its common name.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Male Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) The Turtle Journal team found our first Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) of the 2014 season at noon on Thursday, May 1st, in an upland woods on Outer Cape Cod. \u00c2\u00a0As pictured above peering through the partially closed hinged plastron, the turtle&#8217;s bright red eyes confirm his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[402,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14714"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14751,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14714\/revisions\/14751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}