Thomas the Turtle lived here before I did. In fact, he probably lived here a very long time before I did. The average life span of a box turtle is believed to be around 50 years, with a significant proportion of them living over 100 years. Also, Thomas may actually be Thomaseena, but I haven't checked yet. Female box turtles usually have yellowish-brown eyes and the males usually have red or orange eyes. However, the most reliable manner to distinguish males from females is to examine the bottom of the shell. Male box turtles have a concave area centered near the hinge.

I first noticed Thomas shortly after moving to Melbourne Beach when I saw him eating our newly planted flowers in the front yard. Several months later, I found him in my garden on the west side of the house, and several months after that he appeared to have taken up residence in the garden on the east side of the house. I think he borrows into the ground and sleeps through most of the winter since I rarely see him during the cooler months.

In the early summer he often hang out under my fig tree where he hunts for ripe figs that fall from the tree or are dropped by squirrels and birds. After seeing him eating a fig one morning, I placed a small slice of cantaloupe near him. He definitely likes cantaloupe. Since then I have fed him banana, watermelon, honeydew mellon, blueberries, and strawberries. After doing some research, I discovered that box turtles are omnivorous. In addition to a varied range of fruits and other vegetation, they will eat just about anything they can catch. I searched my yard for earthworms to feed to Thomas, but couldn't find any. So, I tried small pieces of hamburger and chicken. He likes chicken best and will crawl right over chunks of mellon and other fruit to get at a piece of chicken.

After over two years of feeding Thomas on the rare occasions that I see him, he will now take chicken directly from my hand. He snaps at it as though it was alive, so I have to be careful that he doesn't get my finger by accident. The last time I saw Thomas, instead of ducking inside his shell, he raised his head up high and crawled towards me as fast as he could go. Since it was early spring, I assumed he was hungry after a long winter nap and that this behavior was his way of asking for a piece of chicken. Thomas has two box turtle friends that also seem to live in the yard, and of course they also like chicken. However, encounters with these other two are very rare and they remain tightly closed up inside their shell when I am within their field of sight.