Talk:Eastern box turtle

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Osborne147. Peer reviewers: Cantrell39.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 20:01, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

'some' species
In the description, there are constant references to "in some species". This article is about a specific species of turtle...so why does this phrase appear? It sounds as if the text was copied from a source discussing turtles in general, not this specific turtle. Example: "In some species the front and back of the plastron are connected by flexible points or hinges." This is actually a characteristic of this species. ++Arx Fortis 19:58, 28 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Just fixed it myself, there was more wrong with the section than just that phrase (lots of redundant sentences, data, etc.). ++Arx Fortis 20:06, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

I work in a state aquarium and find much of the information in this article to be false. Such as the "hardiness" of the turtle in one statement compared to it's "fragility" in the one immediately after. These animals are by no means fragile as they can survive very rough winters by hibernating and as reptiles, they do not need to be fed daily as this article suggests. There also need to be more citations from credible sources so that this will not happen again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.168.204.10 (talk) 15:56, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Agree with some of that. Hit the edit button and do your bit to clean it up. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 12:37, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

PLEASE CORRECT THIS! The article states that eastern box turtles are semi-aquatic. This is false. While they do bathe in water, if water is too deep, they will drown, since they cannot swim. Semi-aquatic would imply the ability to swim. In fact, drowning is a common cause of death. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SivArtemis (talk • contribs) 15:35, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I think you mis-understand what semi-aquatic means. Regards, SunCreator (talk) 12:37, 27 July 2011 (UTC)
 * The species listed at the semi-aquatic are semi-aquatic. The subject animal of this article does not remotely qualify under that definition. FinnHK (talk) 19:39, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Class Questions: Where are the sources for description and diet? Why no mention of behavior in 'diet and behavior' section? There is nothing on reproduction, temperament, conservation status/threats, etc. Osborne147 (talk) 06:12, 23 January 2017 (UTC)

Review: The introduction gives a brief overview of the subspecies, but I might add a bit more light information like description and habitat. For some reason, special attention is given to North Carolina, when the state is only a small part of the animal’s range; this bit seems irrelevant or misplaced.

In “Description,” I would start with how the turtle is classified (e.g., tortoise, aquatic, etc.) before going into the physical description (or add a Taxonomy section, but that is probably unnecessary). I would include more details about sexual dimorphism and possible include graphics. Some insinuation regarding the body coloration mimicking that of the winter tulip poplar leaf is uncited. In fact, the entire “Description” section needs citation. I plan to got through and compare the description to cited information and clean it up as necessary.

In “Distribution and habitat,” the range can be simplified with a range map possible included. The sections on distribution and actual habitat should be separated instead of lumped into a single paragraph. I might include more quality citations here.

“Behavior and diet” should be broken up into paragraphs based on topic. The content seems okay, but there is terminology I would change. The entire section is basically only about diet and not behavior, so I would include additional sections on life history traits/behavior content such as reproduction, temperament, internal homing instinct, and likewise. This section is uncited.

There is a topic on care in captivity, but no note that the pet trade for this species is a conservation threat and contributes to their dwindling numbers. I would like to add a separate section on main mortality threats. This section is uncited, as well. Osborne147 (talk) 04:23, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

References and Citations
In the Distribution and habitat section, the source cited does not contain all of the given information. For example, the section states the elevation preferences of the eastern box turtle, but that information is not found in the source that was cited. I would also recommend using a source that has clearer ties to the scientific community.

The Behavior and Diet and the In Captivity sections do not contain any citations at all. They are long sections that contain abundant information, so it is suspect that there are no sources given.

Dloesch17 (talk) 00:13, 9 February 2017 (UTC)