Pop Goes the Tortoise

My wife and I have been anticipating our oldest son and his wife arriving, with their three little kids in tow. With all of the wildlife activity in our yard, we figured there will be a fair amount of interest on the little kids' parts. Yesterday morning I noticed a tortoise making its way across one of our garden paths. I called for the kids to come and look. Grandma and the two boys looked from the patio window as I made my way out of the door. As I was looking at the specimen, I said "come on over." The rest of the gang had followed me outside, but asked "Why?" They had seen a second animal on another path and run out to it for a close look, not knowing I had seen a different one and was staring at it on the other side of the yard. Who would have known, two tortoises, both walking across paths, in different parts of the garden at the same time.

Unlike the photograph on the homepage of the Mid-Atlantic Turtle & Tortoise Society showing an Eastern Box Turtle in a forest habitat, the two images I caught yesterday in our backyard garden, the environs of our suburban setting, have proved to be hospitable to the species the past several years. I assume the top photograph a. is of a male (this one happens to be engrossed with the earthworm he has captured - much like the robins that have descended on our front yard since I have been finishing defining and establishing our new flower beds - especially the scale plates on the front legs and the pronounced beak on its mouth.

These are fascinating animals. We have noticed these two hanging around for at least two years. The species is under distress, with their population in decline due to loss of habitat and too much collection out of the wild. Maybe with this pair, we will find out one of these days that there are a catch of little tortoises in our yard - just like our grand kids this and next week. (1)
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(1) News update, May 23, 2010: This morning at 6:00, I looked out the upstairs bathroom window and saw the two tortoises walking together - one after the other - from the gravel path into the bed of lavender. I wonder if there is a deeper significance to this than surface appearances?