Identification, Distribution, and Ecology:
Male Box Turtles are slightly larger on average then female Box Turtles. Males also have thicker and longer tails. Females’ rear claws are longer, straighter, and more slender however. Males have red irises while females have yellowish-brown irises. Box turtles occupy the eastern United States ranging from southern Maine to Florida along the East Coast, and west to Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, and Texas. Box turtles’ habitats include open woodlands, pastures, and marshy meadows. They feed on snails, insects, berries, fungi, slugs, worms, roots, flowers, fish, frogs, snakes and eggs among many other things.
