June 21, 2009 - Rainy Day Rambler

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

In the heat of summer eastern box turtles seem to disappear. In order to stay cool they seek refuge under decaying logs, fallen leaves or in animal burrows, venturing out in the cool of the early morning hours to forage for food. Rain coaxes these dome-shelled turtles into activity. The cooler temperatures of a rainy day seem to suit them just fine and they frequently ramble around on their turtle adventures during and just after rain showers. It has been suggested that box turtles can sense changes in atmospheric pressure signaling coming rain, but there is no scientific evidence to indicate that they react to anything but the rain itself. For an animal that carries its shelter wherever it goes, rainy days can be taken in stride. What’s a little rain when you have a built in umbrella?.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.