Governor Pete Ricketts has proclaimed the ornate box turtle as Nebraska’s official state reptile.
The ornate box turtle lives in grasslands throughout the majority of the state and is one of 48 species of reptiles that inhabit Nebraska.
In issuing the proclamation Friday at the Nebraska Game and Parks Schramm Education Center, Ricketts said “Nebraskans take pride in caring for the natural world, including our wildlife and their habitats.”
The ornate box turtle gets its name from a single hinge shell in which the turtle can almost completely enclose its body to escape predators.
Most of Nebraska’s 9 turtle species live in water at least some of the time, but the ornate box turtle is a terrestrial or land turtle. It’s most commonly found in short, mixed, or tallgrass prairies in the Sandhills and counties in southwestern Nebraska.
To learn more about the ornate box turtle and other reptiles in Nebraska, visit outdoornebraska.gov/reptiles.