Summer is the perfect time to look for highly decorated Ornate Box Turtles
Ornate Box Turtle
There’s more to life on Nebraska’s Chicken Dance Trail than just birds. Wildlife in great abundance thrives on the high plains – if you know where to look for it.
One interesting animal to keep an eye out for is the Ornate Box Turtle, a prairie species found in just 12 states. In a recent trip to conduct a wildlife management study for the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District on Jeffrey Island in the Platte River, my dog sniffed out not one, but two Ornate Box Turtles.
Ornate Box Turtles are small turtles that live on the ground, one of only two terrestrial species on the Great Plains. They can swim, but if left in water too long they will drown. They are considered threatened or endangered in a few states and possession and collection is controlled in all but one.
The shells are elaborately decorated with a radiating pattern of yellow lines on a dark brown background. Males have bright red or orange eyes. The Ornate Box Turtle is active from April through October and prefers plains and prairie to plowed fields.
Ornate box turtles live a long time, 30 years or more. As with many long-lived turtles this means that sexual maturity does not occur for a number of years. It may take a male ornate box turtle six to seven years of growth to become sexually mature with the female not reaching maturity until the seventh or eighth year of life. Then, once box turtles do reproduce they do not produce the multitude of eggs that the aquatic species do. A typical box turtle nest may contain as few as four eggs.
The largest threats to this species are the loss of natural prairie to row crops or alfalfa, collection by people who want pets or who want to sell the turtles as pets, and cars. If a road or highway crosses the turtles’ three-acre home range it is almost inevitable the turtle and a vehicle will eventually have an encounter. In one study in Kansas, on 220 miles of a single highway, 178 dead ornate box turtles were seen in one day!
So please watch out for these harmless little creatures as you motor across the Great Plains. If you see one, you might even consider stopping and giving them a lift to the other side!
Mark M. Peyton
Senior District Biologist
Central Nebraska Public Power & Irrigation District
About the Chicken Dance Trail
The Chicken Dance Trail is actually a collection of great bird and wildlife watching locations in southwest and south central Nebraska, between the Platte and Republican Rivers.
Because the area includes the narrowest section of the hourglass-shaped Central Flyway, the Chicken Dance Trail is uniquely situated for birders. Millions of different birds come through here during spring and fall migrations, making the Chicken Dance Trail one of the best places in the country to see a wide variety of species in a relatively small area.
Our wildlife and bird watching sites were developed by local naturalists and are collected into a series of “adventures” which are described in detail, along with interactive maps, on our Web site at www.chickendancetrail.com. Other resources include a birding chart, useful links, and guides to restaurants, lodging and activities in the area.
Come and visit and learn why we say, “Birds love this part of Nebraska...and you will too!”
Special Thanks to:
Nebraska Game and Parks, Birds of Nebraska
www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/guides/birds/findbirds.asp