Hey Wendee, It looks like a box turtle for sure. It is more colorful then most desert box turtles I have seen before. The blueish head is a character of the desert but also the gulf coast box turtle and eastern box turtles are very colorful. Based on where you found it I would say desert box turtle. It could also be a released or escaped pet of an eastern form but if you were on Elephant Mountain it self then I doubt it. I hope this helps.
Mike Welker Ocotillo Herpetofauna & Invertebrates El Paso, TX ----- Original Message ----- From: Wendee Holtcamp To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 8:56 PM Subject: [ECOLOG-L] mystery turtle - need help on id I was recently in West TX just north of Big Bend National Park (in Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area) when I encountered a turtle I can't seem to id from my Reptiles book. It was very striking in its coloration with a blueish head, orange legs, and red eyes. Some sort of box turtle I think but it doesn't match any description I can find, or image, etc!! Anyone know what this guy is? http://twitpic.com/2r07a2 If you have trouble with that link (on occasion when I click it, it tells me that pic no longer exists, the pic is also at my blog http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com <http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com/> (scroll down to the pics at the end of the latest post). Wendee Blogs for Nature from the Bering Sea ~ http://tinyurl.com/2ctghbl ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wendee Holtcamp, M.S. Wildlife Ecology ~ @bohemianone Freelance Writer * Photographer * Bohemian http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com <http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com/> http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com <http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com/> ~~ 6-wk Online Writing Course Starts Oct 16 (signup by Oct 9) ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm Animal Planet's news blogger - http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news
