In a box turtle’s world, there are no advantages that come from being born little and cute.
It is basically the difference between being appetizer-sized and entree-sized.
Otherwise, your responsibilities remain the same right from day one.
Foraging? Your job. Finding a mate? Your job. Evading predators? Your job.
Hibernating? Yup, you guessed it….your job.
The upside of all this is that when you feel like changing things up a bit, varying your routine so to speak, you don’t have to run it by anyone but you.
For example, if you decide one winter that you prefer to hibernate next to or on top of or completely apart from your hay, you can do it…so long as you remain single and solo in all your pursuits.
But when you join an interspecies flock and retain the services of a large shell-less MommyGuard, all bets are off.
Because you can count on your overprotective (and frankly overzealous) MommyGuard to check on you all throughout hibernation season.
And if she finds you hibernating anywhere but properly burrowed down deep underneath your warm, insulating hay, you can expect you will be moved back into the proper position pronto.
