You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey, Shortwaveers, it's Senior Editor Gabriel Spitzer here in the host chair.

And today we're talking turtles.

Specifically box turtles, the kind of turtle that you may be familiar with if you live

in the US just about anywhere east of Colorado.

I like to think of the box turtle as just like the basic turtle that a lot of American

kids run into when they're mucking around outside.

Science correspondent Nell Greenfield Boyce, joining us today for Turtle Talk.

Hey, Nell.

Hey, I mean, these are the critters that have got the domed shell, you know, the pattern

of yellow blotches.

They can have a bright red eye.

And you know, box turtles roam around forests and gardens and meadows and wetlands.

Like, where did you grow up?

I grew up in Ohio, so east of Colorado.

So did you ever see a box turtle?

Well, yeah, actually, I mean, we had like a little strip of trees behind our house that we

referred to as the woods.

It was really just a pathetic little remnant of a forest, but they were definitely some turtles

in there.

So I let you know.

Basically the same thing.

...