Hey everyone! We hope you enjoyed this video and were able to experience a more intimate look into the secretive life of box turtles. Just a reminder that we are on PATREON now, and we’ve just started a new “Exclusively Otis” tier. Check out our page at this link: www.patreon.com/gardenstatetortoise We appreciate you all.

@lamster06

10 ай бұрын

Hey Chris, Can you do a detailed Chinese Box turtle video?

I love Box Turtles. I had one for 35 years and then a couple years ago, she did not emerge from hibernation. I received her as a full grown turtle that someone "could not take care of" I was a lizard person, but she adapted so well. She lived in so many different enclosures including being free-range in my apartment. When I got a house I set up an outdoor enclosure and she was happy for 15 years until she disappeared. I miss her, but I don't want another one. I prefer the experts captive breed them and maybe some will be released in their home range. Until then I will watch your videos wirht Otis and all the others

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Wow thank you so much for sharing that story and I’m sorry you lost her. Thanks for caring for her all those years.

i have a box turtle that is at least 130 years old. she had put two of her previous owners (one owner had her for 50 years, the other for 40, and i’ve had her for 40) into nursing homes, the way things are going, i’m next… happy to report she’s doing well and seems to have quite a bit of life left in her. they truly are amazing creatures!

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Wow! Thanks for sharing that.

@kaiyakershaw1028

10 ай бұрын

That’s incredible! How wonderful that your box turtle has had for what many other animals would’ve been 3 lifetimes of great pet owners!

@nurridhatekstil

3 ай бұрын

He was there in WW1

This was the perfect video for me! I've had my EBT, Princess Speedy, for 51 years. I brought her home from school at the end of the year (1972) where she and 2 others were living in a cardboard box. Nobody really knew how to care for them, so I brought strawberries from home and gave her water in the bathroom sink. There were really no resources available to me, so I wrote letters to the reptile department at the Bronx zoo, and they actually responded. She was full grown at the time and her annuli were blurred together so I assumed her to be at least 15 to 20 years. Wish I could go back and have a better look. I've learned a lot over the years, especially in the last 20 with the internet. She has a nice outdoor pen for the summer months and I bring her in for the winter. I am thrilled to have found your channel and love that you're in NJ with me :) Thank you for all the great information and for your dedication to these beautiful animals. You're the best! Kisses to Otis🥰

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Wow, what a story!! Thank you for sharing and thank you so much for watching!

A National Geographic worthy video! Box turtles are absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorites. Otis has been such an important ambassador for them! 🐢❤️🐢

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you Lori!

Alt Video Title: "The Story of Otis -- Who he is, where he's been, and how he came to be the incorrigible nose-biting maniac we all love!" Otis -- official species: Eastern Box Turtle unofficial subspecies: Nasum injuriosum retines ("naughty nose biter!")

I volunteered at a wildlife hospital and got to hold some box turtles and take em out for some outside time, I had to make sure they didn’t find a way out of the pen lol. They are very cool animals and I’m going to volunteer again on the 27th

I love this video already!!

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you it was so much fun to film!

I LOVE THESE VIDEOS AND I ADORE TURTS AND TORTS

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you!!

@katharper655

10 ай бұрын

@@GardenStateTortoise Always! Just think of me as a PERMA-FAN!!!

Thanks to Garden State, I have now established sixteen square feet of New Jersey in my English back garden for my box turtle. Cheers guys.

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Cheers to you!

So excited for another video! 😊🐢

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

😌😌

Great informative video content 👍 love your videos your work with preservation of turtles tortoises Etc Love them 😻😻😺😺❤️❤️💜💜

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Another great video. Kona Kai, our little Eastern Hermann hatchling loves watching your videos when he is doing his morning soak. Thank you for sharing this great content with us.

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Awesome and thank you so much 😊

I had spur-thighed tortoise for 20 years, she passed away(kidneys). We bought her in 2003 in nearly death state with worms and crushed jaw, she was ~5 years old then. She was just tortoise version of otis and loved to cuddle and sleep with humans on grass/floor etc. Due to her jaw problems, she loved to eat from human hands, ofc in garden she was eating green stuff for her own too. When i was repairing something, making garden job, our tortoise was always curious about everything and "helping" us. Absurdly intelligent animal.

Great video! I’ve been blessed to have a box turtle that laid eggs and so I can watch them grow up and interact with each other. They truly are curious and full of personality.

Absolutely stunning Chris very well done with excellent information..I’ve been fortunate to come across 2 Box Turtles on my trips to photograph Turtles in the wild , both In Kentucky a few years back , the colour variation on both was stunning and very interesting they where about 2 miles apart but the colours where so different..great content as usual Best regards London U.K

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! And yes, the variation really is flooring.

I love box turtles so much

Eastern Box Turtles are my favorite species and I look forward to seeing them every year. Great video as always on the life of these beautiful animals.

Truly a wonderful video. Only once we have seen a new hatchling and see less and less adults too. Thank you for sharing this story. Great job!!!!!

@katherineneagle7521

6 күн бұрын

I have seen two big ones this year for the first time in over a decade!

I went to visit the national zoo in DC last weekend, and I got to see 16 different species of turtles! Some I recognized from watching your videos! I was absolutely ecstatic to see so many turtles. There was this massive aldalbra tortoise who shell must have been 4-5 feet long!

Great vid - thanks! Great turtle ambassador!

Very informative! Thank you. I had not seen one of these in several years, and someone found one near the mountain bike trails here in Houston...

Crazy. These guys litter Somerset, NJ... yet I've ONLY seen adults. This installment from GST was especially enlightening. How many have I walked over? Thank you GST. (Arizona League of OTIS Fans)

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you Donna!!

Was probably a small dog chewing on it. Great video. Love the content.

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thanks!

Did you pick the shirt to match the environment at the beginning of the video? 😂❤

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Haha no but now I definitely see it 🤣

May our lands and native species flourish. Peace to the Eastern Box Turtle. A truly spirited creature.

My favorite species

This makes me want box turtles even more

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

❤️🐢

I love you.

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

🙏🏻❤️🐢

Wonderful Presentation 🤩👌💫🙏

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you 🙏🏻

My grandmother obtained a box turtle. I now have him. My great grandchildren will have this turtle. He'll probably live forever out of spite.

I hope my RES doesn't read this, but Box Turts are the best. @GardenStateTortoise please put out a calendar! I always look for calendars of turtles every year and only find sea turtle ones, I like tortoises and hatchlings. My wife and I call the 1st of every month "new turtle day".

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

🤣🤣 ok great idea!

@jansenart0

10 ай бұрын

@@GardenStateTortoise ! :D If you make 2 different ones I WILL BUY BOTH. My wife and have in years before!

@marysaltlife1427

10 ай бұрын

​@@GardenStateTortoiseI love the calendar idea!

Tutel 🐢

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

❤️🐢

I loved this video. I'm in the desert southwest and sent this to my sister who lives in New England now.

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you!!

Chris & Casey, Thank you for the tremendous work you're doing educating people about the Eastern Box Turtle. I can remember as a child, finding them in the forests near my home when my family lived in New Jersey years ago. While your videos are both educational and entertaining, the work you're doing is extremely important to the survival of this species. As you know, Eastern Box Turtle populations have declined significantly over the past several decades due mostly to the destruction of their habitat caused by human development. Your efforts to educate people about this important turtle species, and captive breeding programs by herpetologists like you, may be its only chance for survival. Thanks again for your wonderful videos and for the very important work you're doing. It must be very satisfying knowing that you're contributing to biodiversity and helping to ensure the survival of this very important species of turtle. Well done! 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

They have such beautiful shells. I never knew the eggs could wait to hatch through the winter. So interesting.

thanks!

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching!

Amazing!

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

You the man 💪🏻

Thanks for this! Followed*

Awesome vido... box turtles can def be mistaken for a tortoise also.. ..i hope you took them all home😅

Another great video.

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you 🙏🏻

Hi Otis, I hope you are well and happy. In regards to this video, awesome info and yay for Turtles. @Garden State Tortoise

Keep these box turtle videos coming! 👏🏽👏🏽

I have 5 & 2 babies. They all have their own personalities

Love this one. More please!

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Will do! 👍🏻

I've got two for myself

Fantastic!

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Very nice 👍👍👍

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you 🙏🏻

This must have taken a lot of time and preparation to make with showing off all the age ranges. Great job with this video :)

❤🐢

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

🙏🏻🐢❤️

Thank you, Chris & Casey.

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching Mike!

Brilliant video, all round. Really professional and very enjoyable.

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you 🙏🏻

i just found one in my yard can i keep?? kids loving it

Wonderful narration & info.

I got two baby spur thighed tortoise

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Very nice 👍🏻

Beautiful and informative video, thank you! ❤🐢

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Thank you for this video. I love your family and your turtles(and other animals). Otis for President!

That's an exceedingly nice video. Beautiful 👏

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Thank you so so much 🙏🏻

I found a box turtle on the middle if tge wood in the country with my dad i wanted as a pet and I took it hom and discovered that it was injured under its shell like its was dropped and i kept him every sence

They are so cute

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

👍🏻👍🏻🐢

My cousins box turtle exhibits both male and female characterisitcs. One side of “its” eye is dark brown/blueish and the other is red, smooth external shell and no flaring scutes on the back. Im unsure if the plastron was flat or concave, but it’s difficult to identify the gender of this particular box turtle. Also the color of its eyes worry me because i dont know if its an infection or gentically heterochromia. If u want pictures i have them

So I got a box turtle (2 years old) from my aunt and he only weighed 24 grams when I got him. I feel like he’s to small but I don’t know for sure cuz trying to find size guide/reference is difficult

There the prettiest turtles or all. In my opinion.

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

🙌🐢

Beautiful, instructional, and perfectly filmed. Each stage of life displays a wonder of changes. Thanks Chris.🖤🇨🇦

@tron.44

10 ай бұрын

*Instructional.

@tamarrajames3590

10 ай бұрын

@@tron.44 Thank you…somehow I didn’t catch that…corrected now.🖤🇨🇦

I live in California and I really want to take care of a box turtle. Someone please help me. I'm too far away from the East Coast.

What is the biggest box turtle you have

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

It’s a tie between are our two male gulf coast box turtles “Big Blue” and “The Punisher”.

How are you not constantly covered in ticks?

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Oh I am. I work as an assistant herpetologist in the field too. The tick problem is very real.

Whittle baby I helped a female cross the road the other day

i had Asian Box Turtle (Malayan Box Turtle) maybe they lived different from the America cousin

i have a questoin if my baby turtle is white is that bad?

How can you tell if a box turtle is a male or female 5:14

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

Males are typically larger, have a concave plastron and huge rear feet with long legs. They also develop bright red eyes that can even be fluorescent pink. Females develop brown, orange, yellow or green eyes and can sometimes have dark red eyes too. This goes for the eastern box turtle. It’s different for other types of box turtles.

@OutdoorsmanJohnson-ut7ot

10 ай бұрын

@@GardenStateTortoise oh thanks for the reply me and my niece song one in the yard and we couldn't tell if it was male or female but now we can know what it is they were so fascinating reptiles

Anyone know of anyone who would have info on any rehabilitation for F B T or anyone who can help rehabilitate a turtle and help with conservation and breeding any professional / experts a available to reach out to ?

I have a concern that the person, whoever is, i have heard that turtles can and do get internal worms....What or how would a person know this!!??

Do turtles hibernate?

@GardenStateTortoise

10 ай бұрын

It depends on the species but yes, many do.

Interesting facts! 😊👍🏻 But you forgot that some of them prefer noses as a little snack from time to time. 😂

why pick them up all the time? the footage of them behaving naturally in their habitat are much better than the struggle to get away out of a persons hand grabbing them without even paying attention.

@GardenStateTortoise

Ай бұрын

That was your take away from this? Wow. Next time, I’d do a little research on the person or channel you’re trying to make a stab at. Better yet, dedicate 35 years of your life to conserving and preserving a species and then you’ll have the answer to your question. Until then, take care. 😉