If you have a backyard, you're always sharing your outdoor space with the local wildlife, and sometimes, an unexpected visitor may pass through.
In the subreddit r/Charlotte, a Reddit user posted a photo of a turtle they recently spotted in their yard. They shared this in the city's thread because they worried that the turtle might be a neighbor's pet that had escaped.
"I'm in Charlotte proper and a (I believe eastern box?) turtle [...] showed up in my yard and while I'm excited a new friend has showed up, I want to make sure she's not anyone's pet. I think she might be pregnant too, but I don't know much about turtles so I can't be sure," the poster wrote.
Commenters were quick to confirm the poster's suspicions that the turtle was an eastern box turtle, which is native to North Carolina and the official state reptile.
Some advised them to leave the turtle be and not interfere, and others shared their own stories of run-ins with these turtles in the past.
"That's a wild animal and needs to be released. It's also illegal to possess an eastern box turtle in NC. They are a threatened species, and have a lot of legal protection," one user commented.
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"We have an Eastern Box turtle that lives in our back yard. We have an 'urban forest' and have seen him several times over the last couple years," another commenter added. "He pops up every few months, or we will see him wandering from garden bed to garden bed on the security cameras."
"Not a pet! Haven't seen one in a long time, we used to find them as kids a lot," another user commented.
If you take care of your yard and make it welcoming to wildlife, you'll benefit local ecosystems and the environment. Some ways to do this are by growing a garden, landscaping with native plants, and switching to a native plant lawn.
Using native plants saves you money and time on lawn maintenance and can lower your water bills. They also help create a healthier ecosystem in your yard for pollinators, which protects the human food supply.
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