Natural History of the Ornate Box Turtle, Terrapene ornata ornata AgassizLegler, John M.
Science
Natural History of the Ornate Box Turtle, Terrapene ornata ornata Agassiz
Legler, John M.
Ornate box turtle
In the present study two experiments were made to determine the homing
ability of _T. ornata_. An adult male, taken from his normal home
range in the house pond area and released 1200 feet away in the
southern ravine area, traveled a generally northward course (not
northeastward in the direction of home) for five days, moving a
distance of approximately 1900 feet. His detached trailer was
recovered several days later 740 feet southeast of the last known
point in his travels (a distance that could have been covered in two
days) and 150 feet from the point of original capture; he had returned
to his home range by a circuitous route in a period of approximately
seven days. Another adult male, captured in the southern ravine area,
and released in the house pond area 1900 feet away, traveled on a
course that bore approximately 25 degrees north of true homeward
direction; after five days he was approximately 600 feet north of the
original capture point. He then began a northeastward course that took
him back to the house pond area where he remained for several days; no
further data are available for this individual. It is significant that
the homing males discussed above traveled greater average distances
per day (based on records for nine days of trailing) than any of the
other turtles studied (Fig. 27). Fitch (1958:101) released an
individual one half mile from where he captured it and, one year
later, recovered the turtle near the point of release.
Social Relationships
Ornate box turtles are solitary except during periods of mating.
Meetings with other individuals in the course of foraging, basking, or
seeking shelter, are fortuitous and have no social significance. A
broad overlapping of home ranges of both sexes at the Damm Farm
suggests that box turtles do not intimidate other individuals in the
home range or exclude them from it. No instances of fighting were
observed.
Allard (1935:336), Perm and Pottharst (1940:26), and Latham (1917)
recorded instances of fights between individuals of _T. carolina_; in
the latter two instances fights were between males. Stickel (1950:362)
observed an incident between two males that may have been a fight;
however, she was of the opinion that fights rarely occur in nature and
that box turtles do not defend territories. Evans (1954:23-25)
considered the behavior of _T. carolina_ reported by Perm and
Pottharst (_loc. cit._) to represent "territoriality." He found "... a
true hierarchy...." existing between four captive males of _T.
carolina_ and another between three captive females of the same
species; young individuals in the group raised their social level in
the hierarchy after receiving experimental doses of male hormone.
Evans (_op. cit._:25) pointed out that true tortoises (family
Testudinidae) have a more complex pattern of social behavior than do
emyid turtles.
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