The Environmental Benefits of the Box Turtle

Just like the Galapagos tortoise, the humble box turtle provides many benefits to its environment. The main environmental benefit of the box turtle is seed dispersal. Box turtles eat plants, fruits, vegetables, and seeds, so as these turtles migrate and move, they disperse the seeds in their waste. Fun fact: passing seeds through the digestive tract of the turtles actually increases the germination rate of the seeds. Who would've thought?

Figure 1: Box turtle munching on some blueberries
Image from: Google Images

Box turtles are also helpful in turning over land and leaves, especially when they dig in leaf litter to create new homes. This digging and movement of earth and leaves is good for the environment and helps to uncover fertile soil for new plants and seeds to grow. Because box turtles are similar to the Galapagos Giant Tortoise, so many of their environmental benefits are the same as those of the Galapagos Giant Tortoise.

So, what can we take from this? Well, because both the box turtle and the Galapagos tortoise are beneficial to the environment, it is important to work towards conserving these reptiles. In suburban areas where box turtles are sometimes found, we can plant gardens with foods that appeal to box turtles and create spaces with damp leaf litter for the box turtles to create habitats. This is just one way to help these threatened reptiles in our hometowns. And, of course, these reptiles will pay back our help with providing the land with environmental benefits of their own!


Sources: Information for this post can be found on http://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/box_turtles

The Environmental Benefits of the Galapagos Tortoise

The Galapagos giant tortoise is a relatively large animal, hence the word giant in its name. In fact, this reptile can be around 3000 kg. Large animals, such as this, are known to trample, dig, and stir up their habitats as they migrate throughout their environments. In fact, the Galapagos tortoise is sometimes referred to as an "environmental bulldozer" because as it walks along, it makes way a new path.

Not only is the Galapagos tortoise helpful in stirring up the land that it walks, but one of the biggest environmental benefits of the Galapagos tortoise is its scatter and dispersal of seeds. The Galapagos giant tortoise is a vegetarian, and one of its favorite foods is fruit. The Galapagos tortoise eats fruit whenever fruit is available, and the digestive tracts of the tortoises make it so that most of the fruits' seeds pass through the digestive tract unscathed. Therefore, as a Galapagos tortoise migrates, so does its wastes, which allows for these fruit seeds to be dispersed throughout the environment. The Galapagos tortoise is a reptile of many names because aside from being an "environmental bulldozer," the Galapagos tortoises are also referred to as "gardeners of the Galapagos."

Figure 1: A Galapagos giant tortoise eating vegetation.
Image from: Google Images

Because the Galapagos tortoise plays such crucial roles in the environment of the Galapagos, it is important for researchers to study how the migration patterns of these tortoises are changing, and also try to see how we can all work to conserve these tortoises and their environments.

Information from: http://www.gianttortoise.org/tortoise_site_oct_2013_004.htm