Detailed Pictures of 'T2'
(Male Three-Toed Box Turtle)
NOTICE: This page contains 6 somewhat large and
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NON-COPYWRITE NOTICE: All photographs contained on this
page are hereby Released into the Public Domain. You may copy, use, distribute,
publish, sell, or alter them without consent of Roger Louie, the creator
of these photos. It is the authors wish to have these photographs help others
to learn about the American Box Turtle species, but this is not a requirement
for their use or redistribution.
T2's Right side. (04-18-98)
T2's closeup mugshot. A common trait of American Box Turtles is that Male
eye iris coloration is usually Red, or Reddish. This is true for Males of the
subspecies Florida Box Turtles, Gulf Coast Box Turtles, Three-Toed Box
Turtles, and Ornate Box Turtles. On the other hand, Eastern Box Turtle
Males are known to have an eye 'iris' color of Orange-yellow. Beware, don't
use eye coloration as a sole method of determining box turtle sex. Use it
in conjunction with other male traits.
The coloration as seen above is typical of my 2 male box turtles. I wouldn't
exactly call it red, but it is somewhat 'reddish'.
Tess Cook,
who maintains the 'Box Turtle Care and Conservation Web Page',
mentioned to me that when turtles are born the amount of sex
hormones are low, therefore it is difficult to determine
whether a turtle is a male or female. Now, since the amount of
hormones can vary from month to month in adults, the eye
coloration with males can also vary. I guess that is why the
books either say Red, or Reddish.
Bye the way, according to most books, Female box turtles, in many cases,
have Brown, or Yellowish-Brown colored eye iris's.
A better picture of T2's right eye.
T2's Carapace (The Top side of it's Shell). All of my quantity 3 Three-Toed
box turtles, male or female, look somewhat similar to this. In general, their
color is Brown, and there is no distinctive coloration, no spots, and no radial
line patterns as found in other types of American Box Turtle subspecies. The only difference that T2 has that T1 and T3 do not have, is a slight 'flairing' around the carapace rear edges.
T2's Plastron (The Bottom side of it's Shell). I have read in more than
one book that Male Three-Toed box turtles have a slight 'indention' on their
plastron. I assume this 'indentation' would help during the mating process.
(T1 mating with T3) For this male
turtle, T2, you can see a slight 'indention', which would be an indication that this is a male turtle.
T2's tail. According to the books, male box turtles are
supposed to have 'thick' tails at the base of the tail. Also,
their 'vent', or in human terms, the anus, is located farther
away from the base of the tail. Female box turtles are
supposed to 'vents' that are located closer to the base of
their trails, and their tails are shorter than males.
This page Edited/Updated: 05-07-98 4:45 PM
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