Thanks! Wood turtles hold soft spots for the both of us!

Chromatophone Productions I really appreciate it! Narrating can be a challenge, but I feel as though I am getting more comfortable doing it. Good luck with your wood turtle quest! There population is still healthy in some areas, but is becoming fragmented due to habitat loss and road mortality.

Thanks Dawn!! I still do have all my toes, but after many of these outings, I can't feel any of them for awhile lol

Thanks for the encouragement Kriss!

Good work Donna! If you didn't come along at the moment it would have likely been killed. Wood turtles are a species of special concern in MA, and even saving one is vital.

Thanks Travis !

Kevin Brazie thank you, and thanks for stopping by!

Thank you!

Thanks Mike! I welcome your support!

Thank you David and thanks for watching!

Thank you! It does help that they make such cooperative subjects!

Thank you!

Thank you! I really appreciate it.

I am grateful, and that encourages me to keep producing. Thank you

Thank you!

DarExc Thank you!

Thank you!

Good work James! Yeah this time of year some wood turtles will travel quite far from their river home base.

Hingeback Tortoise Central Thanks! They all seek out slow moving but well oxygenated rivers, but river bottom substrate can vary from sandy, to thick muck and everything in between and usually with some snags, root systems etc present. Good luck on your quest!

Thank you so much! It is such a memorable natural encounter and glad you got to witness it. Other species of turtles can be observed during the winter, but usually are not as visible.

ugh that's rough...I commend you for making such an effort to get back to her, admittedly more than I have ever done. Hopefully, she laid a clutch sometime in June and her eggs/hatchlings survive.

A soak bowl is fine and I would just keep a day/night light schedule and make sure you are using full spectrum light bulbs (UVA/UVB). Because it is December she may remain inactive for the next month or so, but she should be okay. I would consider increasing her day schedule by an hour or so in a month to mimic increasing spring daylength. Good luck!

Good question. Wood turtles only hibernate in water. In our area, only the truly terrestrial box turtle hibernates on land.

Thank you and excellent question and one I ponder often. I suspect it is based on few environmental cues, such as the sunlight angle and the passage of time (i.e internal clock), but still as you indicated water temps especially in early spring are still cold and on one of the first mild afternoons in March, where the bottom of the river hasn't budged a single degree from that morning or even the day before how does the wood turtle "know" today is the day to surface?? Maybe there is some mixing with warmer surface moving river water, but that wouldn't explain turtle species that hibernate at the bottom of a placid pond. My hunch with wood turtles is that since the overall water temperature is up a couple of degrees in March say compared to Feb and the sun angle is higher, the turtles move slightly towards the surface on a bright sunny day, trying to sense if the surface water is noticeably warmer . It should be noted that even dormant wood turtles shift around a little in the middle of winter and by early March may move several feet in any given direction on the river bottom as they slowly warm up so for them to make foray to the surface to test the conditions seems logical. No doubt there is some in depth research regarding this interesting topic!

@@lotterhand, thanks for that information 🙂