There Is Hope!

On April 24th, Christopher E. Smith and I found a lone Box Turtle on a site where they had not been found in a while, and I was starting to think they may be extirpated. Yesterday, May 4th, I was walking the site and found two more turtles, a male and a female. While I was comparing the sexual characteristics of the two, they began to copulate. Today, while I was out, I found another male, and two more females. If you compare the markings on the image below, you can see that each turtle is a unique individual. There is hope for these turtles still!