Abundance and Diversity of Seeds in Digestive Tracts of Terrapene carolina and T. ornata in Southwestern Missouri

Box turtles are opportunistic omnivores, and consume a wide variety of fruits. Therefore they might play an important role in dispersal of seeds of a variety of plants. We described the diversity of seeds recovered from feces of Terrapene carolina and T. ornata and made comparisons between them. There was a moderate level of dietary overlap based upon diversity of seeds in the feces. Terrapene carolina had a significantly higher species richness of seeds in its feces than T. ornata. Additionally, we documented seeds of four plants (Celtis, Passiflora, Phytolacca americana, and Platanus occidentalis) that previously were not known to be consumed or dispersed by box turtles.