Three-toed Box Turtle (Terrapene triunguis)


Three-toed Box Turtle with Scar
7/6/2020

When I set out to the grocery early Monday morning to buy onions for making sweet pepper relish (the bell peppers were about to break the bushes), I found this fellow crossing our driveway.  From the scar on his back, it looks like he is quite a veteran.  According to Herps of Arkansas, he is a three-toed box turtle and occurs all over Arkansas.  Herps also lists the three-toed box turtle as "near threatened" according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and of "special concern" to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

It's not the first time encounter with a box turtle we've had here at the House on Salem Road.  A few years ago, one hung around for quite a while to stay close to the source of dry cat food on our back porch.  (This month, a skunk has discovered the cat food supply.)  And just a couple of weeks ago, Amanda and I stopped less than a mile from the house to help a box turtle across the road.


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