Eastern Box turtle? laid her eggs in a dangerous place in our driveway-help!

Jen Paul

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Eastern Box turtle? ( I think) laid her eggs in a dangerous place in our driveway-help! We are in Mableton, GA. I read that adult turtles need to stay within about a football stadium's area when relocated, but what about eggs? I thought about contacting a research lab at a university-but ?? We do live on a few acres, & there is a safer place that I could relocate them here. I have been a life long turtle lover, so it would be super interesting to see them hatch. But we have a LOT of raccoons, opposums, hawks, owls & other critters that would love to eat hatchlings! So not really sure what I should do. They cannot stay where they are--one delivery truck, or car could crush them are. Ideas?
 

Markw84

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Put a cage over the nest and a big red flag. If it is actually blocking your driveway, dig them up and incubate.

a point you mention brings up... The studies I've been reading on relocated tortoises, especially in studies to look at the viability of reintroducing endangered species - all have shown at least the tortoises studied did not exhibit a need/desire to go back to their home territory. They instead immediately adopted a "normal" activity and home range where they were relocated. None exhibited a tendency to wander to find "home" but settled in immediately establishing new home ranges. That answered the questions for the viability of reintroduction. Has anyone seen contrary data on box turtles?
 

CharlieM

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Ideally you'd leave the eggs alone but in this case you may want to consider relocating them to either a safe natural spot or an incubator. Sounds like you are confident that they will definitely not survive where they are and you have enough property to release them once they are partially grown. I agree you could also build a cage over them if you relocate the eggs to a more suitable place on your property. Follow your gut.
 

Clamhandsmcgee

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It's also possible that the box turtle "dumped" her eggs. Did she dig and bury, or did she lay them on the driveway? If there was an issue with the eggs then I believe they will dump them and move on.

One more thing, eastern box turtles are protected where I live, so you may want to consider contacting your local fish and wildlife agency.
 
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