False Map Turtle

Posted on December 8, 2023 by tspuckler

While out and about in southern Illinois, I saw a few examples of this turtle basking along waterways. It is a medium-sized species with a prominent keel along the center of the upper shell and thin yellow lines on the head, neck, and limbs. A yellow marking behind each eye extends upward and then backward, approximately forming a right angle or “L” shape. However, these yellow markings can vary among individuals.

Large rivers and their backwaters are the preferred aquatic habitat for Northern False Map Turtles. The species also occurs in river sloughs, oxbow lakes, lakes, and reservoirs. On the Mississippi River, False Map Turtles particularly prefer the main channel of the river, especially around wing dikes. A muddy bottom, some aquatic vegetation, and numerous basking sites are important habitat requirements.

Map Turtles of all species are avid baskers, spending many hours during the day in the sun. When with other turtles, they also are very communal, sharing space and using each other for predator-watching, increasing the odds of surviving an attack. In this photo, one was basking on top of a Red-eared Slider.

False Map Turtles will overwinter at the bottom of lakes and sloughs, in muskrat dens, or under rocks and logs. Mating occurs in the water during the Spring. Females dig nests in open, sandy areas and deposit between 8-22 eggs per clutch during the summer; females can lay 2-3 clutches. The young emerge after 69-75 days.

Females are twice the size of males with ranges of 5 to 10 inches and 3 to 5 inches, respectively.

Map Turtles get their name due to the patterning on their shells, especially in young individuals, where the concentric yellow lines look like a topographic map. This reptile is also know as a “Sawback Turtle,” due to the projections on its upper shell.

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Red-bellied Cooter

Posted on September 15, 2023 by tspuckler

This is an aquatic turtle with a dark, highly domed shell and a distinctive red belly. It can be found basking along the edges of ponds, streams and rivers throughout the Potomac River and in coastal portions of Maryland and Virginia.

They are not native to Ohio, but I frequently see them in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. These examples are probably released pets.

Red-bellied Cooters are also called Redbelly Turtles. They get their name from their reddish plastron (the underside of their shell).

This reptile is usually found in areas with deep, fast-moving water, with a muddy bottom and lots of aquatic vegetation. Red-bellied Cooters will sun themselves on rocks and logs to control body temperature, but will disappear into the water when alarmed. In Winter, this turtle hibernates in the mud at the bottom of rivers.

Males can have a shell length of 10 to 12 inches long; while females have shell lengths of 11 to 13-1/2 inches. They can weigh up to 12-1/2 pounds. Red-bellied Cooters are estimated to live more than 50 years. Females reach maturity at 13 to 20 years, while males reach maturity at a younger age.

Females begin nesting activity from late May to early June. They typically nest within 300 feet of the water’s edge. Their nest holes are dug at about four inches deep. This species typically lays 10 to 20 eggs that hatch in 70 to 80 days.

Like some other species of turtles, Red-bellied Cooters have temperature-dependent sex determination. Nests with warmer temperatures produce females, while cooler nests produce males.

The diet for this species is herbaceous (they consume only vegetative matter), consisting of submergent aquatic macrophytes, such as hydrilla, brushy pondweed, eel-grass, arrowhead, and mud plantain.

Although it does not belong in my home state of Ohio, it’s always a neat experience to come across one of these impressive reptiles while out hiking.

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Peninsula Cooter

Posted on May 27, 2022 by tspuckler

While kayaking in California I caught this very cool (but non-native) reptile that in its natural range is found throughout the Florida peninsula.

Peninsula Cooters live primarily in habitats such as floodplain swamps, basin marshes and occasionally tidal marshes. Areas with slow moving or stagnant waterways with abundant basking sites, submerged vegetation and sandy bottoms are preferred.

Growing to a shell length of almost 16 inches, this is a reptile of impressive size. It is mainly a herbivorous species, with adults feeding solely on plants and filamentous algae, but with some juveniles eating insects and small fish.

Peninsula Cooters are often seen basking on logs or sun-warmed rocks. They may be found in the company of other aquatic basking turtles, like Painted Turtles and Sliders. They can move with surprising speed in the water and on land.

These turtles hibernate in the water. They don’t breathe during this time of low metabolism, but can utilize oxygen from the water, which they take in through their cloaca.

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Three-toed Box Turtle

Posted on November 19, 2021 by tspuckler

While visiting a nature center in Missouri last month and walking the trails, I came upon a reptile that I have never encountered in the wild before.

Three-toed Box Turtles are named due to the number of toes on the back feet, though there can be four-toed examples too. Their carapace (upper shell) is high-domed and tends to be olive or brown with faint yellow or orange lines. It’s small size (usually less than five inches), color and pattern allow it to blend in well with the forest floor.

Generally a forest species, it also can be found on forest edges and in brushy fields. Young Three-toed Box Turtles consume mostly earthworms and insects, while adults tend to be more vegetarian, eating a variety of plants, berries and mushrooms.

To protect themselves from predators, turtles are able to pull their heads, legs, and tails into their shells. Box Turtles have the additional ability to clamp their shells completely shut, due to a hinge in the plastron (lower shell). Very few predators can successfully prey on an adult Box Turtle.

Because of this adaptation, once a Box Turtle reaches adulthood, its average life span is 50 years, while a significant portion live to over 100 years in age.

This reptile is native to the south-central part of the United States and is the official reptile of the state of Missouri.

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Western Painted Turtle

Posted on April 23, 2021 by tspuckler

This reptile is not native to Ohio, but I do see it occasionally in Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Summit County Metroparks. These turtles are probably released pets. I have also found it on my visits to California, where it is also not native.

This is the largest of the four subspecies of Painted Turtles and attains a carapace length of up to 10 inches. Like others in its species, it is brightly marked.

The Western Painted Turtle is native to the midwestern states of Oklahoma northward to the Dakotas and extends as far as Saskatchewan, Canada. It reaches the eastern portion of its range in upper Michigan and Ontario.

These turtles feed mainly on plants and small animals, such as fish, crustaceans and aquatic insects. Turtles don’t have teeth, but instead have horny ridges that are serrated and sharp on their upper and lower jaws.

The Western Painted Turtle is rather adaptable and is known to occur in prairie pothole wetlands as well as river floodplains and oxbows. It and its relatives, the Eastern, Midland and Southern Painted Turtles, are the most widespread turtles in North America.

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Eastern Painted Turtle

Posted on April 24, 2020 by tspuckler

While visiting the East Coast, I had my first-ever encounter with this turtle in the wild. Walking along a quiet waterway in Virginia revealed a few examples of this reptile catching the sun’s early rays.

The first one that I came across was sharing a log with a tiny Coastal Plain Cooter. While they occur in in ponds, lakes, ditches, swamps, rivers, creeks and marshes, this turtle’s preferred habitat has a combination of aquatic vegetation, soft substrate and basking sites.

The Eastern Painted Turtle, along with its relatives the Western Painted Turtle, the Midland Painted Turtle and Southern Painted Turtle, is the most widespread species of turtle in North America.

Like their painted relatives, Easterns eat aquatic vegetation, algae and small water creatures including insects, tadpoles, mollusks, crustaceans and fish.

Although they superficially look similar to the Midland Painted Turtle in my home state of Ohio, Eastern Painted Turtles are the only turtles in the United States with their scutes (large scales on the shell) arranged straight rows across their backs, rather than alternating.

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Northern Diamondback Terrapin

Posted on August 3, 2019 by tspuckler

While visiting Maryland this Summer, I came across a reptile that I haven’t seen in quite some time. Its common name refers to the diamond pattern on top of its shell, though its overall pattern and coloration can vary greatly.

Females tend to be larger than males and have a shell length of 6 to 9 inches, while males are typically 4 to 5-1/2 inches. Their beak is typically light in color and is often white.

The Diamondback Terrapin is the only turtle that inhabits coastal marshes with brackish water (a mix of salt and fresh water) for its entire life.

This reptile mainly eats mollusks and crustaceans, including snails, fiddler crabs and mussels. They are usually most active during high tide, when the marshes they inhabit are often flooded.

Diamondback Terrapins were once used as a main food source, first by Native Americans and then by European settlers. From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s they were hunted so extensively that they almost faced extinction.

During the early 1930s, when terrapin numbers decreased, the popularity of this turtle as a food item faded. Its populations have since rebounded due to the lack of harvesting pressure. The Northern Diamondback Terrapin is Maryland’s State Reptile.

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Eastern River Cooter

Posted on November 24, 2018 by tspuckler

Walking along the Cache River in southern Illinois, I spotted this “lifer” reptile basking on a log. It was a lucky find, as it is endangered in Illinois. This one was a male, as evidenced by its long claws on its front feet. The Eastern River Cooter resides in sloughs and rivers, especially where aquatic plants are abundant. Though aquatic, like other water turtles, it will leave the water to bask on logs.

They can grow to a shell length of around 12 inches. As part of their mating ritual, the male uses his long claws to flutter at the face of the much larger female. Like many other basking turtle species, they are very wary and quickly slide off their basking spot and into the water if approached. The term “cooter” may have come from the African word “kuta,” which means turtle.

Not long afterwards, while visiting Virginia, I saw this young example of an Eastern River Cooter. Aquatic plants seem to make up almost 95% of their diets. Like many other freshwater turtles, they have a sleek but protective shell. This allows them to withdraw when threatened, but still efficiently reduce water drag while swimming. It was neat to see this creature for the first time in the wild, both as an adult and a juvenile.

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Desert Tortoise

Posted on July 9, 2016 by tspuckler

While visiting the Mojave Desert last month, I saw this ancient creature lumbering across the arid landscape.

The Desert Tortoise has a lifespan of 80 to 100 years and grows slowly. It is not a fan of the desert heat and most of its life is spent underground in a burrow. The Desert Tortoise’s burrow creates a subterranean environment that also can serve as a shelter for other desert inhabitants like snakes, lizards, mammals and invertebrates.

Its shell length is about a foot long. This reptile’s legs are elephantine (or “columnar”), to support its relatively heavy body. The front legs are protected by a covering of thick scales and equipped with claws to dig burrows.

The Desert Tortoise’s diet is made up of a variety of vegetation, including grasses, wildflowers and cacti. They often emerge from their burrows to drink from pools of water after rainstorms. Adults can survive a year or more without access to water.

The Mojave Desert population of this species is listed as “Federally Threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Livestock grazing, urban development and off-road vehicles (as well as highways) degrade the tortoise’s quickly disappearing habitat.

I’ve only seen a few of these reptiles during my many trips to Nevada, so it was nice to come across this one. The Desert Tortoise is the state reptile of Nevada and California.

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Northern Map Turtle

Posted on December 12, 2015 by tspuckler

Walking along the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath this Summer I encountered a turtle that I had never seen in the wild before. Its Latin species name is geographica and both this and its common name “map turtle,” refer to the markings on the skin and shell.

Part of the difficulty in finding this turtle is that it prefers to live in large rivers and is very wary, diving into the water at the slightest disturbance. It prefers large bodies of water and areas with fallen trees and other debris for basking. These turtles are more often found in rivers than in lakes or ponds.

Northern Map Turtles are more carnivorous than most other water turtles. Adult females have wide heads and broad, flat crushing surfaces in their mouths which they use to feed on molluscs, their primary prey, as well as insects and crayfish.

It is not unusual to see these turtles walking around under the ice, for they are among the very last turtles to go into hibernation – if they go at all – and among the earliest to reappear in spring.

The female of this species attains a shell length of about 10 inches, while the male’s seldom exceeds five inches. These reptiles are found throughout the eastern half of the USA and northward into southern Canada. In addition to being called Map Turtles, they are also known as Sawback Turtles. Whatever you call it, it was awesome to see this reptile in the wild!

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Category Archives: Turtles

False Map Turtle

Red-bellied Cooter

Peninsula Cooter

Three-toed Box Turtle

Western Painted Turtle

Eastern Painted Turtle

Northern Diamondback Terrapin

Eastern River Cooter

Desert Tortoise

Northern Map Turtle