The common box turtle is a species of box turtle with five recognized subspecies, found throughout the eastern United States and Mexico. It has a distinctive hinged lower shell that lets it fully enclose itself like a box, and a hooked upper jaw; it is primarily terrestrial, eating a wide variety of plants and animals, and turtles in the northern part of its range hibernate through winter. Numbers are declining because of habitat loss, roadkill and capture for the pet trade, and the IUCN Red List classifies the species as vulnerable; North Carolina and Tennessee have each named a subspecies of the common box turtle their official state reptile.
Facts
Classification
System (Realm) Relationship to People Living or ExtinctDerived from this species' own Conservation Status: this atlas's IUCN category list has no Extinct value, so a set conservation-status is itself evidence of living status. Comparison
NatureServe Rank CITES Appendix Identification
Distinguishing AppearanceBrown carapace often marked with orange or yellow lines, spots, bars or blotches 1 Scientific Name Conservation Status Connections
Child Taxon Of
Source Wikidata: Common Box Turtle
In Biome
Source Wikipedia: Common box turtle
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Common box turtle
Lead, sentence 1
common box turtle (Terrapene carolina)
Conservation
The common box turtle is therefore classified as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List.
Description, paragraph 1
The carapace is brown, often adorned with a variable pattern of orange or yellow lines, spots, bars or blotches.
Lead section
The turtle is primarily terrestrial and eats a wide variety of plants and animals.
Article text
The common box turtle is also listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meaning that international trade in this species should be carefully monitored to ensure it is compatible with the species' survival.
In Biome: Grassland, Habitat
The common box turtle inhabits open woodlands, marshy meadows, floodplains, scrub forests and brushy grasslands in much of the eastern United States, from Maine and Michigan to eastern Texas and south Florida.
View the Source2. GBIF Species API
3. NatureServe Explorer: Terrapene carolina
NatureServe ExplorerGlobal rank (roundedGRank)Quote, Global rank (roundedGRank)
"roundedGRank": "G5"
Wikidata: Common Box Turtle
- Wikidata Q1044378, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Child Taxon Of: Terrapene, Wikidata P171 (parent taxon) claim, rank=normal, target=Q734870 (Terrapene)
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