I spotted this terrapin in the garden the other day. I heard something I knew was bigger than the lizards I usually hear and when I went to investigate I found the terrapin.
I believe the technical name for it is Eastern Box Turtle, but Pap and Granny always called them terrapins and so I do too.
We’ve never had much trouble with rabbits or groundhogs eating our gardens. The dogs that roam the holler keep them at bay, but terrapins are a different story.
They love to eat low hanging tomatoes and melons. Or more accurately, like The Deer Hunter says, they like to take one bite out of tomatoes and melons and then amble off leaving the remains.
My niece used to catch her a terrapin for a pet at least once a summer. She’d build a little pen of sorts to keep it in and try to feed it grass or vegetable peelings. After a few days she’d grow tired of playing with it and let it go at the edge of the woods.
Before she turned it loose, she’d paint a small streak on it’s shell with fingernail polish that way she’d know if it ever came back to her. One year we saw a pink streaked terrapin way up the creek. Knowing it was one of her’s I said “It’s probably making tracks for Georgia hoping it’s never loved to death by a skinny little girl with big brown eyes again.”
John Parris wrote a piece about Cherokee folklore that said the markings on the shells of terrapins tell a story. I’d like to know the stories of the ones in my mountain holler.
When I shared a video of finding the terrapin someone said they could tell it was 28 years old by the markings. I know they do have very long lifespans, but I don’t know how you tell their age. It is nice to think about though. If the terrapin is 28 years old it’s been around as long as Chatter and Chitter.
Last night’s video: Supper Was Interrupted BUT We Had a Wonderful Dessert Cherry Crisp with Homemade Ice Cream.
Tipper
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I found one in my garden with red fingernail polish. A little girl probably had it as a pet once. I took it about a half a mile down the road and turned it loose.
You can tell the approximate age by counting the ridges on their scutes (shell). Sort of like counting the rings in a tree. Start at the shell bottom edge and count up to the center back. Years with drought and stress can affect the ring growth though.
I’ve seen them on the roads in the past, but can’t say I’ve ever found one in my yard. They are pretty to look at but if they eat gardens, I have no desire to have one come visit my yard.
This is a question for Jim Casada and others that have bird hunted with pointing bird dogs. Did you ever have your dog point one of these terrapins on a warm day in the early hunting season.?
The shells of deceased terrapins offer raw material for a fine type of friction turkey call. A thin piece of slate carefully fitted to the hollow shell and glued in place creates a sound chamber, and with the use of a striker scratched across the slate in proper fashion, it is possible to mimic various turkey sounds, most notably yelps, clucks, purrs, and kee-kees.
Good Morning Tipper and Matt. In Sevier County when I was growing up, we always called them Tarripens. I love to listen to language. One time there was a great big one in our driveway. Mom caught it and cleaned it. I can’t remember how she fixed it or what it tasted like. I am sure she probably rolled it in flour and fried it. A couple of years ago, we had two really big ones here in our yard (Blount County) and I took a picture of them. You rarely see them anymore. Well, I guess I had better get last nights canning jars to the basement. I made your dill pickles, Relish and some of our favorites “Icicle Pickles.” Have you ever made them? I use to make them for a lady in our church that was moms best friend. That and shellie beans was all she ever wanted out of the garden. Right before she died and wasn’t able to can them no more, I would drop her off a few jars and sit and talk. She ate one EVERYDAY with her sandwich for lunch. Life is so precious. Don’t waste a minute of it.
Drama-I have never made them but that sounds good. Love those memories!
My Daddy always said that seeing a terrapin crossing the road was a sign of rain.
We grew up calling them box turtles and had boatloads of them with a forested yard, creeks and wetlands. I kept many as pets but also let them go at my father’s insistence, which became ritual creekside releases. They are beautiful creatures for certain, and you are lucky that they come to your garden for a bite to eat and a visit.
Yes!!! That’s what Daddy called them too! Terrapins pronounced “turr-pin”! We recently had a terrapin wander out of the forest to just off our back porch. The woodland creature took me back to my childhood summers spent at my grandparents’ farm. I kept a terrapin a few days but it kept me awake bumping & scratching in the dishpan on the front porch, just outside my open bedroom window. I’m surprised I could hear it with the nightly song of katydids! Ah….country life in Southern Appalachia!
The term Terrapin is used in Scotland and the rest of the UK for any shelled turtle that lives in fresh water and land. They reserve the word “turtle” for shelled members who live in the sea. Tortoise is reserved for the turtles that live entirely on dry lands/deserts. I suspect the “terrapin” preferred term in southern Appalachia is likely a residual of that old UK terminology. Eastern Box turtles generally don’t wander far (750 ft territory). They spend their first few years primarily in and around water where they can eat meat (worms, bugs, tadpoles, fish, (live or dead) to grow quickly. About five years old they become primarily land based (diet becomes more omniverous- bites of this that and anything reachable. The females can store sperm for up to four years, so they can lay fertile eggs whenever their internal instincts tell them conditions are right for their fertile eggs to hatch and find conditions right to thrive. That 28 year old estimate may be aboutright for an old box turtle in the wild (average 25 years), but in captivity some have lived to over 100 years old. That doesn’t mean most “pet” box turtles thrive in captivity. Grass and vegetable peels are like feeding a prisoner moldy bread and foul water, they live, but they don’t thrive. Thankfully, most kids get bored and release their prisoners.
There are five species of box turtles in Florida. One has only three toes on its hind feet. Yes, it is called the Three-toed Box Turtle.
As I commented in the video we pronounced the word tarpin or tarrpen.
Today your writing brought back even more memories. Do you have those little white stri·ped blue tailed lizards at your place? We call them scorpunt lizards. They were supposed to be poisonous. Turns out they are not only harmless, they’re not even lizards, they’re skinks. Ever heard of “scorpunt lizards?”
Papaw-we do 🙂 as well as the ones that are more brown/tan, and we have the ones that look like, little dinosaurs.
Those are fence lizards, Tipper. Easy to catch if you chase it to the back side of a fence post or tree and grab with both hands. They are harmless.
I think the dinosaur looking ones are the eastern fence lizard.
Tarpens is what I grew up calling them. interesting to know term came from Scotland. but being raised in wolf Creek, Cherokee co. with history of Scottish/ Irish roots in family. Thanks for the memories!
I also have them around my home, one stays around my dog pen. It drives my dog crazy trying to catch it. I seem to remember calling a lizard a “streak field” or similar name. I wonder if it was these blue tails. I do remember him telling me they were poisonous.
My oldest granddaughter loves turtles and most any animal. She caught an eastern box turtle once and kept it for a pet in her bedroom in a little plastic thing made for turtles. She fed it and cared for it but cleaning out its home got to be a big chore, so her mama talked her into letting it go in the woods behind their house. She also put fingernail polish on its back so she could recognize him. Once, a long time later, she found and caught him to hold, but let him go free again. The fingernail polish markings work well.
We use to have a male and female box turtles that have lived here ever since we moved in. We would see them in the flower beds, around our raspberry and blackberry vines and the female would lay her eggs on the edge of our garden fence. Sadly, they both died going on 2 years ago. We tried to save them, but whatever they had that made them sick was too much for them. Every once in a while we would see baby turtles crawling around through the years, but I haven’t stumbled across any for a few years now. Hopefully another set will decide this is a good place to live and take up residency here like our last pair.
In middle TN terrapins were everywhere as well as the gray mud turtles. I’ve stopped my car to assist a many turtle across the road as seeing them smushed is just wrong on many levels! I love turtles but do realize they’re ancient and somewhat dangerous. Murrman has a little brother who decided to KISS his terrapin which was a terrible idea. He came a running with a tiny turtle hanging off his lip and arms just a flailing!!! I think they used a stick to get that turtle to let go of Dan’s lip. I laughed when nobody was looking and this morning laughed again thinking of kissing a turtle! Mommy used to say stupid is as stupid does and I’ve done lots of STUPID things in my life… I laughed to thinking about a turtle heading quicker than most to the GA line trying to get away from your neice! Lol A pet you say???? Stick with what you know like cats or dogs… I’d rethink the whole turtle thing… he has a very small brain and is archaic…
While they are kind of cute, I imagine they can be quite the garden pest. It would be interesting to be able to read the stories on their shells.
Love terrapins. I was always finding one growing up. Their scientific, or technical, name is Terrapene carolina so that is where their common name of terrapin comes from.
If you stop to help one cross the road, always put them on the side they’re headed toward.
Stay cool in this heat!!
School friends always brought box turtles to me because they knew of my love for most kinds of turtles. Our house has woods on 2 sides as well as 2 nearby creeks. I didn’t try keeping them as pets, though I had several river sliders over the years. I just turned them loose in the edge of our yard and let them go on their way, enjoying the idea of my “gifts” populating our property. My stepfather eventually put a stop to my turtle relocation program because he found one in his garden with its head inside the cantaloupe he’d been waiting until just the right time to eat. He had always grumbled about the bites taken from his squash and tomatoes but the melon was the last straw. I still accepted any turtle that was offered but turned them loose near the creek at the end of the road.
I liked to play with terrapins when I was growing up. It seems like I don’t see as many now as I once did. I would love having terrapins or rabbits eating a few things in my garden instead of deer. Now seeing rabbits is rare and the bobwhite quail no longer exists in my area. I think of my Grandmother whenever I see a terrapin. When I was young and playing with them the terrapins would go in their shell and not move, Grandmother would say “I”ll make him move.” She would set them on a sheet of newspaper and then set the newspaper on fire. Sure enough the terrapin would soon be hauling tail. They would take off just as soon as they could feel the heat, she never actually burned them. Daddy would say seeing a terrapin is a sign of rain, I haven’t seen one in a coon age and it has been about that long since we had any rain too.
I once saw a terrapin with his front legs on the back of another,propping himself up, so he could bite a tomato that was just out of reach.
Enjoyed the story and the video. My cousin and I decided to build a pool on the property between us that was owned by my uncle. We also wanted to have a home for the soft shell turtle he found. We used a thick plastic my dad had in the garage. In the end, the turtle didn’t like it and escaped and my cousin and I didn’t fair well as my uncle did not appreciate the huge hole we dug and my dad didn’t appreciate that his plastic tarp now had holes in it that made it useless. We filled the hole the next day!
Ava–At the risk of offending, but I simply couldn’t resist the temptation, I think it’s more likely you saw two terrapins in the act of procreation and that it just happened to take place in close proximity to a tomato.
We used to see box turtles all the time in northern Maryland. Wish my sister and I would have been smart enough to dab some nail polish on a spot to see if they ever returned. Heck, if we had maybe your niece would have found one we loved on as it hightailed itself to North Carolina! We just adored those box turtles but only for a little while and sent them on their way.