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This site was created by students in the herpetology class at Towson University.  Site last updated: 05/21/07.

Acknowledgements: Herb Harris - Range Maps;  Mark Tegges - Photography; Dan Lapascha & Gigi Forester - TU Herpetology Logo

Eastern painted turtle

Description

    The painted turtle has a smooth, flat, and unkeeled carapace and a head with yellow stripes on each side. Yellow and red stripes can be found on their necks, legs and tails as well.  The painted turtle is the only turtle in which the large scutes of the carapace are in more or less straight rows across the back.  Another good field mark is the olive front edges of the large scutes that collectively form light bands across the carapace.  The adult carapace length is typically 11.5 - 15.2 cm (4½ - 6 in.).  The painted turtle is most active between March and October, but it may be seen basking on warm winter days.

 Habitat

    The painted turtle is the most common basking turtle observed in our area.  It is often found where the water is shallow, the aquatic vegetation is profuse, the bottom is soft and muddy, and suitable basking sites are present, such as in typical ponds, marshes, ditches, edges of lakes, and backwaters of streams.  Their food consists largely of aquatic vegetation, insects, crayfish, and small mollusks that are available in these habitats.  They hibernate under logs or stumps underwater, or in muskrat or beaver lodges.

 Breeding

    Courtship occurs from March to mid-June and nesting occurs from late May to mid-July. Females prepare a flask-shaped nest in slightly moist loamy or sandy soil at a sunny site near water, and the eggs incubate for about 75 days. Eggs incubating at relatively higher temperatures (87°F, 30.5°C) produce female hatchlings; lower incubation temperatures (77°F, 25°C) produce male hatchlings. At the pivotal temperature of 84°F (29°C), both males and females are produced.  Turtles hatch in late summer or early fall and may migrate to breeding ponds or overwinter in the nest.  The hatchlings have a keeled shell and an abdominal fold, both of which disappear as they grow. Their shell pigmentation and markings are brighter and more pronounced than those of adults. They mature about five years after hatching and are thought to live as long as 20 years.

Distribution in Maryland

Range map adapted from Harris, 1975. 

Links

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/eastern_painted_turtle.cfm

http://www.dnr.wa.gov/nhp/refdesk/herp/html/4chpi.html

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Chrysemys_picta.html