Common Mud

Common Map

Alligator Snapper

Red-eared Slider

Smooth Soft-shell Painted Turtle Eastern River Cooter

AQUATIC TURTLES OF KENTUCKY

Common Musk

History and Life• First turtles appeared about 200 million years ago,

considerably before dinosaurs

• Have undergone little evolutionary change

• There are about 100 aquatic turtles that live in the United States, only about 16 live in Kentucky

• Can live for more than 50 years, average is about 35 in wild

• Live in almost every type of habitat

Kentucky Turtles• Alligator Snapper• Common Snapper• Mississippi Map• False Map• Ouachita Map• Common Map• Midland Painted• Southern Painted • Red-eared Slider

• Common Musk• Eastern Mud• Mississippi Mud• Eastern River Cooter• Hieroglyphic River

Cooter• Midland Smooth Soft-

shell• Eastern Spiny Soft-

shell

Taxonomy• Kingdom: Animalia• Phylum: Chordata• Subphylum: Vertebrata• Class: Reptilia• Subclass: Anapsida

Order: Chelia or TestudinesFamily: Chelydridae Snapping turtlesFamily: Kinosternidae Mud and Musk turtlesFamily: Emydidae Sliders and CootersFamily: Trionychidae Soft-shelled

Types of Turtles• Tortoises: terrestrial

• Terrapins: freshwater

• Turtles: used to refer to marine, used commonly for all members

Turtle Anatomy

Turtle Anatomy

• No teeth, sharp strong jaws and beak

• Scutes of tough keratin cover the surface of the bones

• Turtles have about 50 bones

• Shell has hinge between plastron and carapace to protect turtle inside

Family CHELYDRIDAE

2 Turtles:

Alligator Snapper Macroclemys temminckii

Common Snapper Chelydra serpentina

Common Snapper

Common Snapper• Carapace tan to dark

brown• Massive head and

powerful jaws• 3 rows of keels• Tail as long as

carapace• Up to 45 lbs. in wild,

can exceed 75 lbs. in captivity

• Diet: invertebrates, aquatic plants, fish, birds, small mammals

• Likes soft mud bottoms, plenty of vegetation and some brackish waters

• Length: 10-18 ½ in.• N.A. Status: Common

Rockies-east coast

Common Snapper Breeding• Mates April to

November• Lays as many as 83

spherical eggs, usually 20-30

• Eggs laid in muskrat lodge

• Females can retain sperm

• Incubation depending on weather 9-18 weeks

Common Snapper Distribution

Alligator Snapper

Alligator Snapping Turtle• Largest freshwater

turtle, record 316 lbs.• Massive head with

strongly hooked beak• Long tail• Carapace brown or

gray• 3 prominent keels and

extra row of scutes

• Likes deepwater rivers, lakes, some brackish

• Unique structure in mouth, acts as “fishing lure”

• Diet: anything including other turtles

• Length: 16-32 in.• Status: Vulnerable

E. Tex.-Ga.,north to Miss. River in Iowa

Alligator Snapper Breeding• Lays one clutch

between April and June

• 10-52 spherical eggs buried in mud or sand

• Incubation 11 ½ -16+ weeks

• Only females leave water to lay eggs

Alligator Snapper

Alligator Snapper Distribution

Family KINOSTERNIDAECommon Musk Sternotherus odoratus

Eastern Mud Kinosternon subrubrumsubrubrum

Mississippi Mud Kinosternon subrubrum

hippocrepis

Common Musk Turtle

Common Musk ID• Smooth, high domed

carapace, olive brown to dark gray with layer of algae

• 2 light stripes on head• Females

short tail, small head• Males

large, long tail ending in a blunt spine, enlarged head, anus posterior to edge of carapace

• Barbels on head and throat, both sexes

• Length: 3-5 inches• Status: Common

c. Tex.-Wisconsin, east

Common Musk Breeding• Mates February to

June• Females lay several

clutches annually• 1-9 elliptical eggs• Deposited in tunnels

dug by muskrats or in nests of alligators, under tree stumps

• Incubation about 9 to 12 weeks

Common Musk Turtles• Musky odor released

by two glands under the edge of carapace, musk turtles smell worse than mud turtles

• Nicknames: – “Stinking Jim”– “Stinkpot”

• Live in freshwater and streams, some brackish waters

• Mainly in sluggish water with mud bottom and plenty of vegetation

• Diet: omnivorous, worms, aquatic insects, crickets, larvae, and aquatic plants

Musk Turtle Distribution

Eastern Mud Turtle

Eastern Mud• Carapace olive to dark

brown, patternless, smooth

• Dives swiftly at the least sign of danger

• Fresh or brackish water - shallow, slow-moving, soft bottom, plenty of vegetation

• Diet: prey caught off bottom and aquatic vegetation

• Males more aggressive than females over territory

• Musky odor• Length: 3-4 inches• Status: Common

S.E. U.S.

Eastern Mud Breeding• Mates March to May• Several clutches laid

annually• 1-6 elliptical eggs• Incubation about 100

days• Deposited in tunnels

dug by muskrats or in nests of alligators

Mud Turtle Distribution

Family EMYDIDAEMississippi Map Graptemys pseudogeographica

kohni

False Map Graptemys pseudogeographicapseudogeographica

Ouachita Map Graptemys pseudogeographicaouachitensis

Common Map Graptemys geographica

Midland Painted Chrysemys picta picta

Southern Painted Chrysemys picta dorsalis

Family EMYDIDAE (con’t)Red-eared Slider Trachemys scripta elegans

Hieroglyphic River Pseudemys concinna Cooter heiroglyphica

Eastern River Pseudemys concinna

Cooter concinna

Common Map Turtle

Common Map• Yellow and olive-

brown colored carapace

• Yellow oddly shaped circle behind eyes

• Females are larger, males half their size

• Large ponds, swamps, quiet streams with muddy bottoms, abundant aquatic vegetation

• Basks in sun• Diet: females-clams,

crayfish, snails, insects, some plants

• Length: 9-13 inches• Status: Common

Northern Ala.-north,Eastern Nebraska east to Eastern OH.,

Common Map Breeding• 2-3 clutches per

season• 3-20 eggs laid early

summer• Males stroke face and

neck of females with claws

Common Map Distribution

Red-eared Slider 

 

 

 

Red-eared Slider• Prominent red stripe

behind eyes• Carapace olive to

brown with yellow bars and stripesCarnivorous young, herbivorous as adults

• Enjoy basking on logs• Hibernate in colder

weather• Live more than 30

years

• Sluggish water, soft bottoms, dense vegetation

• Diet: young-aquatic invertebrates, tadpoles adults-plant material

• “Dime Store” Turtle• Don’t survive to adult• Length: 8-12 inches• Status: Lower risk

S. Central-S.E. U.S.

Slider Breeding• Females larger than

males• Males stroke face and

neck of female with claws

• Mates March to June• 1-3 clutches, 2-23 oval

eggs• Incubation: 2-2 ½

months• Males mature 2-5

years

Slider Distribution

Family TRIONYCHIDAE

Midland Smooth Trionyx mutica muticaSoft-shell

Eastern Spiny Apalone spinifera Soft-shell spinifera

Spiny Soft-shell

Spiny Soft-shell• Yellowish-greenish

carapace• Entire shell feels like

sandpaper • Several large spines or

conelike projections • Nose resembles a

snorkle• Rivers, streams, and

large lakes with sandy or muddy bottoms

• Diet: crayfish, food, aquatic insects

• Can remain submerged for up to five hours using either dermal or cloacal respiration

• Capable of exchanging gas through their skin in both water and air

• Length: 17 inches females, ½ that males

• Status: Common but at risk S. Central U.S.

Spiny Soft-shell Distribution

Midland Smooth Soft-shell

Midland Smooth Soft-shell• Feet of softshells have

extensive webbing• Found in rivers, large

streams, and rarely large lakes with sandy or muddy bottoms

• Diet: insects, worms, snails, clams, frogs, fish, young birds, small mammals, algae, and seed

• Length: 14 inches or more, males half that

• Status: Common/risk

• Gray or brown with dots and dashes on the back

• No bony scutes like other turtles

• Flat and leathery with very flexible edges

• Nose tapers to a point and resembles a snorkle

• NO ridge in each nostril, different from a spiny softshell

Smooth Soft-shell Distribution

Spiny and Smooth Soft-shell Breeding

• Breed in May and they lay their eggs in June or July

• Young hatch in August or September

• Lay the 12 to 30 eggs, ping-pong ball shaped

• Nests are on sandbars• Eggs often dug up by

carnivorous mammals, drown, some fish

Threats • Most turtles are declining in numbers due to:

– Pet Trade

– Organs sold for medicinal purposes worldwide

– Food

– Habitat Loss

– Overabundance of predators such as raccoons

Solutions• In the pet trade, it is now illegal to sell a turtle if

the carapace is less than 4 inches in length

• Some turtles are being put on threatened lists and being labeled as “vulnerable” so they can be more protected under laws and policies

• Of 270 or more known species, more than 100 are considered rare or threatened with extinction

Problems in Kentucky• Snapping turtles are a danger to young waterfowl.

• To remove turtles, bait heavy lines with chicken gizzards and place baited lines in the shallow water areas around the pond. Captured turtles can be eaten or relocated.

• Smaller, hard-shell, or slider turtles can be captured with a trap. Make a trap place placing a box or barrel in your pond. Put a board across the top. Turtles will climb onto the board to bask in the sun, then fall into the box or barrel.

Research• Most research done on Sea turtles, not freshwater• “Temperature and Sex Determination in Reptiles

with Reference to Chelonians” David Madge, University of London (2000)

• Several places have included turtles in research but only in terms of species inventory of a specific piece of land

• “An Inventory of the Amphibian and Reptile Fauna of Ichauway” Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway in Georgia (2001)