It is 6:30 a.m. and there is knocking at the door. It is
too early for a visitor – what is going on? When
the door is opened, Yellowhead is peering up. “Where is breakfast- how come the
door is not open?” He comes in, turns the corner to the cat food bowl, lowers
his head, and CRUNCH. The cat gallops in, as well, but quickly applies the
brakes, to loom above Yellowhead like a vulture – “Dadgum turtle…jeez.”
Yellowhead nibbles away for ten minutes, and then strolls
through the house. Once, and only once, has he marked the house as his
territory with one neat, tidy dropping. “No beetles have snuck in, boss.” Back
he goes, out the door, his shell thumping as he clambers down the stoop.
“Dessert-time… I’m glad my humans brought the pile of prickly pear fruit to the
porch.” He rolls over a couple of the tunas, finally selecting one with the
proper softness.
Yellowhead raises his head as One-spot ambles by on the
way to the cat food. One-spot is a little shy – if one of the humans moves too
much at the breakfast table, she bolts for the door. She does not explore the
house and if a cat wants to eat, she deferentially makes way. “Ooh, pardon me.”
Two new turtles have followed these long-time residents
to the cat food bowl this year, though they have only visited once. For them,
it must be a little too strange entering a human’s house to compete with
four-legged monster kitties. The smaller of the two, Little Pee-body, came in
boldly, neck arched, peering every which way. She did not pull her head in when
approached, but when picked up and examined, named herself. White-neck panicked
and ran for cover when the humans unexpectedly returned from their early
morning walk, disappearing under the bed. The shock of being carried out the
door imprinted a permanent wariness, but she does appreciate the prickly pear
tunas.
Fancy-legs and Big-girl prefer the herb garden. Big-girl
lives in the compost pile next to the Scent Room. When she comes out to
explore, the smell of scented geraniums and patchouli wafts about the adjacent
area, announcing her presence. “We know you are awake, Big-girl… come out, come
out, wherever you are,” She is not the friendly sort. She is big and old, set
in her ways, downright business-like in her morning food patrol. Fancy-legs is
a roly-poly hunter par excellence. She moves slowly, digging in the mulch.
Despite her valiant efforts the roly-polies decimated the Sweet-woodruff, but
she helped keep the Woad alive in its early days.
Old Man moved from the shadehouse to the tall-grass this
year. Last year, he and Big-girl claimed the shade house together, and no other
turtle stayed long in their neighborhood. But Big-girl must not have “come into
season” this year, and with the drought, Old Man probably preferred the deep
mulch of old tall grass stalks. He has only come out the few times more than
half an inch of rain fell. Perhaps he was looking for earthworms in the early
morning, before the clouds melted away.
Out in the pasture, a turtle with very narrow yellow
lines roams. Her territory is much larger than that of the turtles who inhabit
the cultivated gardens near at the house. She has not yet received a name.
Sometimes she is called Dit-dot-dit, for the pattern on her back, and sometimes
Lonely-girl, because she seems to dislike the company of other turtles.
Tattered-and-torn died last winter. She was a consistent
cat food gourmand for most of last summer, but in early winter she was found
dead by the pond, upside down and fleshless. Normally, turtles are able to
right themselves if accidentally rolled onto their backs. What turned
Tattered-and-torn over is unknown. It may have been a stray dog, or a hungry
coyote. Maybe a raccoon came by, and got bored waiting for her to stick her
neck and legs out to turn over, and left her to die. Tattered-and-torn’s shell
is on a place of honor on top of the “folly” by the pond.
[In Ireland a garden feature that made to look like an
old ruin is called a “folly.” Our folly is a vegetated mound with
old brick steps leading to the top, where a large stump represents an altar. A
flag bearing the image of the famous rock-art drawing of a shaman from Panther
Cave near Del Rio marks the entrance. Flameleaf Sumac, Four-wing Saltbush,
Nolina, and Prickly Pear surround the central open area on the mound’s top. The
folly serves as a wonderful “blind” for watching kingfishers, herons, and other
birds that come to the water.]
Box Turtles do not often visit the pond area. They may be
disgusted by the presence of several stinkpots, or Yellow Mud Turtles. The
stinkpots are almost never seen. Once in a while, their tracks lead across the
silty, fishpoop mud in the shallows. Stinkpots reportedly eat frogs, but a
respectable population of Leopard Frogs has maintained itself for years. A
rescued Bullfrog was introduced this year, but so far ol’ Jug-o-rum has not
diminished the Leopard Frog population either. A big Texas Pond Slider, rescued
and released, has not been seen again. Possibly a gravid
female searching for a proper nesting spot, she may have found location lacking
and continued her hike.
An unknown number of additional Box Turtles have been
spotted along the trails of our average West Texas
pastureland need a home range of five to ten acres. These other turtles
occasionally show up at the edge of the planted areas, and may be observed
several times, before they disappear again. Do the resident turtles chase them
away? Is there some form of turtle communication ( maybe pheromones?) that
informs the visiting turtles that carrying capacity has been reached in the
planted area? Why are the two turtles who reside in the Fruiting Mulberry Thicket
or in the Jujube Grove much shyer than the other Arboretum turtles?
The turtles appear to follow natural
patterns in their lives. People with backyard populations of ten or more report
that their turtles are visible much more often than our pasture turtles. Many
of our turtles come out for a week or two, roam around, visit
the house, then disappear for two weeks at a time. This cycle continues
throughout the year. Wild turtles in the pasture may only emerge in rainy
periods, or when driven out by hunger during a drought.
What makes backyard turtles so much more active? Is there
more competition? (Competition for space, that is, since backyard turtles are
normally well-fed.) Ourturtles do not get the swollen eyes or
lumps on their necks that affect some backyard turtles. Are these maladies a
symptom of stress which afflict the backyard turtles?
Baby Box Turtles are never seen here. Little
Pee-body is the smallest, and she is at least three years old. Two yearling box
turtles were released last year. One was seen a short time later, after digging
a hole on the “Rock Hill,” a mound of gravel and composted cottonhulls used for
experimenting with the cultivation of west Texas plants that thrive on gravelly
hillsides. Is the resident gray fox able to eat baby turtles whole? Did it eat
the yearling box turtles, too? Does Magoosh the roadrunner eat baby Box
Turtles, as well? Are the babies driven from the cultivated area by the other
turtles?
Turtles are wonderful neighbors!
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