HARMLESS REPTILES ON WOODLAND FLOORS

      Two species each of harmless and attractive turtles and snakes, including eastern box turtles, wood turtles, ring-necked snakes and brown snakes, live in and on dead-leaf carpeted woodland floors in the northeastern United States.  These reptiles have characteristics in common in their shared habitat, including having protective scales, and being cold-blooded and camouflaged on forest floors.  They are quiet and secretive to avoid predators, and lay small clutches of eggs in woodland soil.  Some of those leathery-shelled eggs, however, are dug up and eaten by striped skunks and raccoons. 

     Box turtles and wood turtles belong to different genera of turtles, but their habits are similar in the woods habitat they share.  Habitats mold unrelated creatures living in them into similar beings so those critters can fit into and use those habitats they adapted to for their advantage in continued survival.  Porpoises, which are mammals, and fish are streamlined for life in water.         

     Box turtles and wood turtles have good senses of sight and smell, and are omnivorous.  They eat invertebrates, berries, mushrooms and anything else edible on woods floors.  Both species hunt earthworms, slugs and snails after heavy or prolonged rains when those invertebrates are most likely to be above ground.  

     Box turtles have yellow or orange streaks on their dark upper shells, which mimic sunlight patterns dappled on forest floors, which camouflages those beautiful turtles.  And box turtles, especially adult males, have striking yellow or orange patterns on their heads, necks and front legs, which make those turtles attractive.  

     Interestingly, the top shells of all turtles are made of backbone and ribs grown together.  The bottom shell is the sternum bone much enlarged.  The bottom shells of box turtles each have a hinge which allows the turtle to close its protecting shell as tight as a box.  

     Wood turtles are brown all over, camouflaging them on woodland floors.  But wood turtles also have orange blotches on their front legs and necks, which make them more handsome.  And they have large, dark eyes that add to their beauty.  

     Adult ring-necked and brown snakes are a foot and a half long, and harmless.  Their two-inch-long hatchlings are thinner than pencils.  

     These kinds of snakes safely live under prostate logs and blankets of fallen leaves on woodland floors.  There they eat salamanders  and a variety of invertebrates.  However, some of these snakes fall victim to barred owls, red-shouldered hawks, skunks and other predators.  

     The lovely ring-necked snakes are black on top and yellow or orange underneath, with a ring of the same color around the neck.  Brown snakes are brown, with attractive, black markings on the brown.   

     Lucky are the people who see these lovely reptiles.  I've seen all these species in the wild, including their babies, several times each.  If readers see these harmless reptiles, please leave them where they are.  If removed from their natural habitat, they are gone from it, as if a fox ate them.     

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