Free at last, two Eastern box turtles took a quick look around, split up and headed for the deep woods at high turtle-speed.
They were the first of six radio-equipped females released this week in the dark and secluded forest that shelters undeveloped portions of the Baltimore Zoo.
The release was part of a yearlong Towson State University study of the threatened species. TSU herpetologist Don C. Forester and four undergraduate volunteers will track the turtles by radio for a year as they establish territories, mate, forage for worms and burrow in for their winter hibernation.
Forester hopes the work will reveal how turtles native to these woods respond when nonresident turtles confiscated from a smuggler are introduced into their territories. That could suggest ways for people to avoid mistakes when they release captive turtles in well-meaning efforts to help reverse the reptiles' shrinking numbers.
"Too often people catch them and release them somewhere else," Forester said. "They think it's OK, but we're trying to get a handle on what happens. Do they wander off, or settle down? Do they cause the turtles that are already there to reduce their movements?"
Glenn Therres, a wildlife biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said it's not even known whether captive turtles survive after they are released in the wild. "It might seem to be the right thing to do, but is it? That's the big question they're trying to answer."
Eastern box turtles, or Terrapene carolina, are the most terrestrial of Maryland's 13 turtle species. At home in forests, they are omnivorous, dining on berries, worms, small insects and even baby mice, Forester said.
They typically roam a territory of several acres, with life spans similar to humans. A few have been known to live more than 100 years.
Box turtles are listed as threatened throughout their range -- from New England to Florida, and as far west as East Texas and Arkansas. That means they are in decline and may be in danger of extinction if nothing is done.
"When I was a kid, I could go out and find several box turtles," said Anthony Wisnieski, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Baltimore Zoo and Forester's partner in the study. "Now I could look all day and not find any."
65 percent decline
No statistics are available on how many remain in Maryland. But decades of study by Lucille F. Stickel of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, in Laurel, revealed a 65 percent decline in the box turtles there. Their numbers fell from 107 in 1945, to 37 in 1975.
