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.