MExican box turtle

Physical features

• The Mexican box turtle is a species of box turtle that is native to Mexico.

• Box turtles have a hinged plastron, an adaptation that allows them to hide inside their shell in order to become an impenetrable box. This is especially helpful when encountering predators.

• This species usually has a brown or tan carapace and plastron, sometimes with darker markings.

• Males are more colorful than females, particularly on their heads and forelimbs which can include grays, blues, oranges, and yellows. Females are typically more subdues with shades of brown and tan.

Diet: Omnivore

• Wild – Vegetables, fruit, mushrooms, insects

• Zoo – Salad, mushrooms, earthworms, crickets, small mice

Reproduction

• Breeding occurs during the fall and the following spring the female will lay a clutch of 4-8 eggs into a well-dug nest. The incubation period lasts about 60-70 days.

Interpretive Information

• Box turtles can act as seed dispersers (they aid with germination of plant seeds).

• One can tell the gender of a box turtle by observing the plastron. Males have a concave plastron which assists in the mounting of females during breeding season. Females tend to have a flatter plastron.

• Box turtles are diurnal. They cool themselves by hiding under moist leaf matter, in mud, or in water.

• Recent phylogenetic research has determined that the Mexican box turtle, which was once considered a subspecies of the eastern box turtle, is in fact its own unique species.

Updated September 2024