We sit on just under 9 acres, behind my house I've been building out a turtle yard and turtlefor our 50ish asian box turtles and tortoises. The other weekend I was moving water storage tanks with my tractor and almost ran over this EBT. I dont see many these days, ive only seen one on my property in the last year, a much more colorful female. Seems the dull ones however are more common here.
Picked it up to move it 3 ft so i can pass through my narrow trail with the tractor and I realize how light weight he is, and spot a bit of blood on my hand.
I've picked up a lot of EBTs from the roads and herping, this one weighs less than any similarly sized one, and its getting cold. Head wound looks fully healed, and so does the plasteron but it appears to have reopended, and was actively bleeding.
I contacted NCWildlife to figure out where to take it (legal concerns), and their response after I explained where I found it "if you want to rehab it we will issue you a license".
So now we have an EBT until spring, he will be the sole occupant of the new turtle building for the winter to gain weight, and I'll be building a release pen this winter for a slow release. My wife is thrilled at the prospect of doing turtle native turtles (she really wants diamond back terrapins, which are difficult to legally have here, rehabbing is one way to do so).
It is an odd turtle however. It will follow anyone if it can see them over the edge of it's enclosure (walls are not see through), it doesnt box up when picked up, and it will run to you and snatch food from your hand as you fill it's dish. It seems to recognize humans, it is less shy than any turtle I have here (I dont handle nor interact with mine).
This leads me to wonder if its yet another dumped "pet', did someone pick this up for a year or two then release it? We live next to a nature preserve, released animals are common. Cats, dogs, goats, red foot tortoises... all found in the last year and a half of us being here.
Anyhow, we are awaiting on rehab license in the mail, have provisional permission from the state and a new adventure starts.
Picked it up to move it 3 ft so i can pass through my narrow trail with the tractor and I realize how light weight he is, and spot a bit of blood on my hand.
I've picked up a lot of EBTs from the roads and herping, this one weighs less than any similarly sized one, and its getting cold. Head wound looks fully healed, and so does the plasteron but it appears to have reopended, and was actively bleeding.
I contacted NCWildlife to figure out where to take it (legal concerns), and their response after I explained where I found it "if you want to rehab it we will issue you a license".
So now we have an EBT until spring, he will be the sole occupant of the new turtle building for the winter to gain weight, and I'll be building a release pen this winter for a slow release. My wife is thrilled at the prospect of doing turtle native turtles (she really wants diamond back terrapins, which are difficult to legally have here, rehabbing is one way to do so).
It is an odd turtle however. It will follow anyone if it can see them over the edge of it's enclosure (walls are not see through), it doesnt box up when picked up, and it will run to you and snatch food from your hand as you fill it's dish. It seems to recognize humans, it is less shy than any turtle I have here (I dont handle nor interact with mine).
This leads me to wonder if its yet another dumped "pet', did someone pick this up for a year or two then release it? We live next to a nature preserve, released animals are common. Cats, dogs, goats, red foot tortoises... all found in the last year and a half of us being here.
Anyhow, we are awaiting on rehab license in the mail, have provisional permission from the state and a new adventure starts.
