I was delighted to spot this Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) yesterday alongside one of the trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. These beautiful land-dwelling turtles, also known as Woodland Box Turtles, are extremely long-lived and are capable of living over 100 years in captivity, though in the wild they often live much shorter lives due to disease and predation.
The brown eyes of this turtle suggest that that it is a female, though I have read that eye color is not always 100% accurate in determining the gender of a box turtle—males of this species often have red eyes. The shell pattern for each box turtle is supposed to be unique, like a fingerprint, which makes the wonderful patterns of this turtle’s shell especially intriguing.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Beautiful portraits, Mike. The other way to tell a male box turtle from a female has to do with the shape of the shell: https://www.ncarboretum.org/2016/05/18/mr-ms-box-turtle-five-tips-identifying-box-turtles-gender/
This article gives some other ways to tell them apart that I didn’t know. Thanks for prompting the search!
Adorable! These portraits are lovely. You’ve really captured not only the different textures of this sweet turtle but also its sense of inquisitiveness. I am anthropomorphizing, of course, but it seems like the turtle is stretching forward to explore and consider something.
Awww, very cool find!!