It was just another lazy Sunday afternoon, and we were headed to the park to enjoy the great weather when we noticed a small crowd of adults and young children on the sidewalk in front our house. They were all admiring a turtle nestled up against our retaining wall, unsuccessfully trying to make its way to the other side.
After letting the brave children in the bunch give the turtle a gentle pat on the back, we decided to try to move it out of harm’s way, and that proved to be more difficult than we had imagined. When I see a turtle, the words timid and slow come to mind, but this one was feisty and rather spry.
My husband tried picking it up with his hands and it snapped its head around and hissed. So, he got some gardening gloves and tried to scoop it up and it crawled away rather quickly. Finally, we maneuvered the turtle into a cardboard box, which it leaped out of en route to the wooded area where we planned to take it. At last, we settled it down near a stream in the woods at the corner of Northern and Ponce. Phew! Operation turtle rescue was complete!
After spending some time researching our little visitor, I learned that it is an Eastern Box Turtle. And while the species is not necessarily rare it is one of only two species of box turtles in the United States, according to a Davidson College article. Here’s a little more information from the Davidson College article on box turtles:
Box turtles are extremely long lived, slow to mature, and have relatively few offspring per year. These characteristics, along with a propensity to get hit by cars, make the box turtle a species particularly susceptible to human-induced problems.
So, Decatur parents, if you see a feisty little fellow like the one pictured above making its way down your sidewalk, grab some gloves and a box and put it out of harm’s way…again 
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