When it comes to intricate design, nature’s got the edge. Meet the Ornate Box Turtle, a North American original dressed in golden lines and dark spirals — like a living mandala carved by sunlight and soil. Each marking is a fingerprint of survival, a story etched over decades beneath the wide, open prairie sky.
Unlike most turtles, these land-dwellers have traded swamps for grasslands. They burrow deep to escape the heat, emerge after rain to hunt beetles and berries, and carry their fortress wherever they go. Evolution’s answer to slow and steady resilience.
But the prairies they depend on are vanishing — ploughed, paved, and fractured by roads that turtles were never built to cross. The ornate beauty of the plains is fading, one shell at a time.
⚡️Original pen & ink illustration up for grabs! Highest bidder takes it home (bidding in my Instagram Stories). 100% of proceeds go straight to @turtleconservancy , protecting box turtles and other critically endangered species around the world. You just cover postage. Bid Here https://www.instagram.com/stories/andycmarshall/3745829772778961482?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=am1tZDNlcWNoZ3hk
Kids Book Illustrator Andy C Marshall 