Disappearing Box Turtles

I stumbled across this blog post. Its a few years old, but when you're dealing with animals capable of living 160+ years in the wild, a few years isn't that long. I'm not exaggerating when I say 160+ years old. It's actually been documented. The pictures here are of Boxie, a local celebrity in her hometown in Massachusetts. Every once in a while, somebody finds her and it makes the local news. As you can see, she's had initials and dates carved into her plastron (something that is painful for the turtle, as the shell is made of living tissue, so don't do it yourself). Unlike many other turtles with initials and dates carved into their plastra, the second round of carving was documented in letters, giving it credibility. The first two young men to carve their initials and dates into her were killed in a war a few years afterwards. The next person to carve his initials recognized those of the two fallen soldiers, and wrote a letter to their families. These pictures were taken in 2005(not by me).

The war the two soldiers died in?

That would be the Civil War. Although it shows the wear of years, you can still make out the year '1861'. In order for these carvings to have been made, she had to have been full grown at the time, something which would take 15-20 years in Massachusetts, so at a minimum, her hatchdate would have been sometime in the 1840s, possibly sooner.

She hasn't had an easy life, yet keeps plodding on.

Respect your elders.


Thanks to Sandy Barnett for the photos and the story of Boxie.