Eastern Box Turtle Terrapene carolina carolinaI took this in-situ photograph of a wild Eastern Box Turtle in May of 2015. Despite missing many scutes, this scarred specimen was out searching for food and behaving completely normally. After years seeing thousands of reptiles and amphibians in the field it has been my experience that turtles can be very tough creatures.

I have seen turtles that have survived all kinds of major injuries, including a Common Snapping Turtle, Chelydra serpentina, whose head was cut in half but survived for years. If you have not seen the Red Ear Slider, Trachemys scripta elegans, that survived having its eyes, nose, and mouth parts cut off you should be sure to google that.

I consider myself to be a humane person, and many of my herp friends are as well. None of us want to see an animal suffer, but think twice before you take any sort of humane action against a wild, free-ranging reptile. You might be surprised by the healing powers that many wounded reptiles possess. We have all seen herps run over by vehicles, and in years past even I might be tempted to, “put a snake out of its misery.” However, time and experience demonstrated to me that a lot of these injured animals have the ability to heal and survive for many years. When legal, I am more likely to move an injured animal to safety than to euthanize it, and I encourage all of you to learn from my experience and give injured wild animals a second chance at survival.