These characteristics, along with a propensity to get hit by cars and agricultural machinery, make all box turtle species particularly susceptible to anthropogenic, or human-induced, mortality.

[1] Eastern box turtles have a high, domelike carapace and a hinged plastron that allows total shell closure.

[5] The carapace can be of variable coloration but is normally brownish or black and accompanied by a yellowish or orangish radiating pattern of lines, spots, or blotches.

Skin coloration, like that of the shell, is variable but is usually brown or black with some yellow, orange, red, or white spots or streaks.

Eastern box turtles feature a sharp, horned beak and stout limbs, and their feet are webbed only at the base.

[7] As ectotherms, Eastern box turtles must maintain temperature homeostasis by seeking cover, such as shaded forests or streams, when body temperatures are high and by finding basking locations when body temperatures are low, in order to increase their metabolic rate for foraging and digestion [8] Eastern box turtles are found exclusively in North America,[7]mainly in the eastern United States, as its name implies.

The eastern box turtle is considered uncommon to rare in the Great Lakes region; however, populations can be found in areas not bisected by heavily traveled roads.

[9] They have also been known to take "baths" in shallow streams and ponds or puddles, and during hot periods may submerge in mud for days at a time.

[12] Eastern box turtles are known to have high site fidelity and remain in the same home range for a very long period.

[16] The eating habits of eastern box turtles vary greatly due to individual taste, temperature, lighting, and their surrounding environment.

Unlike warm-blooded animals, their metabolism does not drive their appetite; instead, they can just lessen their activity level, retreat into their shells, and halt their food intake until better conditions arise.

In the wild, eastern box turtles are opportunistic omnivores and will feed on a variety of animal and vegetable matter.

Studies at Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary in Maryland have also shown that eastern box turtles have fed on live birds that were trapped in netting.

[7] Thousands of box turtles are collected from the wild every year for the domestic pet trade, although there are captive-bred individuals available.

Captive turtles may have a life span as short as three days if they are not fed, watered, and held in a proper container.

Eastern box turtles require high humidity, warm temperatures with vertical and horizontal thermal gradients, suitable substrate for burrowing, and a T5 HO fluorescent UVB lamp of appropriate strength.

A basking area at one end of the enclosure is important to offer the turtle the ability to warm itself and is critical to sexually mature males and females for development of sperm and egg follicles, respectively.

Because box turtles seldom get the nutrients they need to foster shell growth and skeletal and skin development, they also require a multivitamin supplement and access to a cuttlebone for calcium.

[25] "The turtle watches undisturbed as countless generations of faster 'hares' run by to quick oblivion, and is thus a model of patience for mankind, and a symbol of our State's unrelenting pursuit of great and lofty goals."

[27][28][29] In Pennsylvania, the eastern box turtle made it through one house of the legislature, but failed to win final naming in 2009.

[30] In Virginia, bills to honor the eastern box turtle failed in 1999 and then in 2009; a core reason is the creature's close links to North Carolina.