Anyone working with Mexicana?Yucantana? Nelsoni?

[justturtles]

I frequently see Desert Box turtles "Luteola" and Ornate Box turtles "Ornata" openly for sale in Florida. I have seen them for sale on websites, by individuals, and at expos. Here is a paragraph directly from Florida's Nongame Wildlife Regulations: Turtles: Freshwater turtles taken from the wild may not be sold, but freshwater turtles raised on aquaculture facilities or purchased from licensed vendors may be sold with a Class III License ($50.00) for Exhibition or Sale of Wildlife. Turtle aquaculture facilities are exempt from this requirement. Possession of striped mud turtles from the Lower Keys, alligator snapping turtles, Barbour's map turtles and Suwannee cooters is prohibited. Individuals having alligator snapping turtles, Barbour’s map turtles or Suwannee cooters before July 20, 2009 must apply for a Class III Personal Pet License to keep their pet turtles. This license only will be issued for one alligator snapping turtle and two Barbour's map turtles per person as these species had possession limits. The following species have a possession limit of two: loggerhead musk turtles, box turtles, Escambia map turtles and diamondback terrapins. I don't have anything in writing to back it up but I feel pretty sure it pertains only to Florida's native Box turtles. I bet there is a Florida resident out there that could jump in here and clear this up for us.

 

[turtlemanfla88]

I am checking into it. I just heard that Ornate's, Desert, three-toes, and Mexican box are in one group now and the rest are in carolina group.I will keep you updated.

 

[turtlemanfla88]

I live in Florida next time I see FWC at a show or expo I will ask. It would be so much better for us and the animals if everyone only could sell captive born babies and no sub-adults or adults. Then people would stop taking them out of the wild.

 

[HLogic]

FWC officers may not know.

 

[Turtlepete]

Despite me asking them countless times to please update the writing on the website to specify further then just "box turtles", they have yet to do so. "Box turtles" is completely misleading. Only terrapene carolina and the ssp. that fall under that species are regulated here. However, anything that has the name "box turtle" attached to it, they will try to give you an issue about. I just had to explain to them again this year when updating my permit how I legally had more then 2 box turtles because they were an entirely different species. Even the Cuora, an entirely different genus, seemed to be a headache, since they are "box turtles". Ugh. While they didn't understand how, my ornata are legal here.

Mexican box turtles that are part of T. carolina would be regulated here, in the all-knowing knowledge of Florida F&W, even though they are from an entirely different country and occur across the Gulf of Mexico from us. Kind of like how USF&W made it illegal to transport burmese pythons from North Dakota to South Dakota, in "an effort to protect the everglades".

Perhaps taxonomic changes will occur and save us from this stupidity…..

 

[turtlemanfla88]

you are right once at a show they thought Ornate's were FLA box. It would be great if we could only sell captive born babies. There are so many FLA box and Gulf Coast for sale that are wild caught and get taking out of state to sell.

 

[turtlemanfla88]

I love asked them how are there so many adults FLA Box and Gulf Coast outside of Florida and how did they get there?. They are not protecting the animal because people will kept coming to FLA and taking wild adults which will devastate the populations out of state.

 

[justturtles]

I have houses in Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. I ran into the same problem in Alabama. AL. Fish & Game came up with a regulation prohibiting an individual from possessing more than 1 Box turtle of the genus Terrapene except by permit. They do not want to give permits either. All turtles native or non native to the genus Terrapene have been caught up in this regulation. Got an attorney involved to get a permit to keep some of my non natives in Alabama. They are so *** backwards in how they do things. I feel your pain turtlemanfla88. I joined USARK to fight for our rights. It is one of the only organizations we have, that I am aware of, to fight for us.