Bobby, Fake Bobby and Louise

Eastern Box Turtles

Bobby came to the Center on July 16, 2010. At the time he was donated, he was estimated to be about 30 years old. His red eyes and concave plastron (the bottom of the shell) indicate he is a male box turtle.

One way to tell the difference between a turtle and a tortoise is how they walk. A turtle drags its plastron when it walks, while a tortoise lifts the plastron up off the ground. Walking in the footsteps of great artists like Picasso, Bobby has developed a new hobby…. PAINTING! The most renowned artist in The Wildlife Sanctuary, Bobby the box turtle creates his masterpieces by dipping his feet in different colored paints and then “feet-painting” across the canvas. An example of his artwork can be seen in the West Hartford campus snack area.

Fake Bobby was a wild turtle that had been caught many years ago and passed around a couple homes before arriving here at the Center. Since then he has become one of our star educational animals and has visited hundreds of schools and educated them about turtles. Box turtles are one of the most common native animals that people will find in their backyard or in the woods and think that they would make a nice pet. Then they will keep the turtle for a couple months or a couple years, which is not good for the turtle.

Louise came to us as an unwanted pet that someone had owned for many years. She had been caught in wild but could not be released back because we did not know where Louise was from. Box turtles have an incredibly strong homing instinct and if they are taken from their home and put somewhere else, even if it is miles away, they will walk back to that specific place that they had lived. They have very small territories, only occupying about half an acre to an acre their whole lives.
Resident at our West Hartford CT campus