The Painted Turtle: Chrysemys picta

Taxonomy

Identification:

    Chrysemys picta is easily distinguished by it its colorful markings. It is a medium sized aquatic turtle with a dark colored carapace (olive or black); oval, smooth, flattened and unkeeled. Bright red markings on the plastron and yellow lines on the head, legs, and tail, also has a notched upper jaw and webbing between toes (since it is an aquatic species).

Photograph taken by Amanda Playter                                                                              Photograph from: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/Karen_Francl/Chrysemys_picta.jpg/view.html

Distribution:

    Chrysemys picta is the most widely distributed North American turtle, and the only one to range across the entire continent. Distributed from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, south to Georgia, west to Louisiana, north to Oklahoma, and northwest to Oregon. It is the only species of turtle that occurs naturally in Idaho, being found mainly in the northern portion of the state.

http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/bio/reptile/test/chpi/chpi.htm                     Distribution map/Conservation Status for Cyrysemys picta from: http://www.natureserve.org/

Habitat:  

    Chrysemys picta is found in freshwater, shallow lakes, ponds, and slow moving streams and rivers that are quiet with a thick layer of mud. They prefer habitats with aquatic vegetation to hide in and eat with abundant floating debris for basking. 

Western painted turtles sun themsleves on a log. Photo courtesy of Jim Rathert, Missouri Department of Conservation. http://www.fws.gov/midwest/GreatRiver/divisions.html

Behavior:

    Chrysemys picta feeds opportunistically on various plants and animals, living or dead, foraging on water bottom or among aquatic plants. In Idaho, aquatic insect larvae are major diet item of juveniles and adults. They hibernate in water on muddy bottoms, most active diurnally from March through October, though warm weather may stimulate activity in other months. Evening activity on land may occur during nesting. Eggs and hatchlings incur high mortality from various predators and the young are carnivorous.

Reproduction: 

    Males reach maturity in 2-5 years and females in 4-8 years. Mating begins after hibernation and before feeding begins when the water temperatures are still low. Fall mating may also occur. The breeding season lasts from late spring to early summer. In the early summer, females lay 4 to 15 oval, soft-shelled eggs, in a flask-shaped hole, about 4" deep. Females choose soft, sandy soil with good exposure to the sun in which to dig the hole. Once the eggs are laid, they cover the hole and leave. Incubation averages 10-11 weeks. The young hatch, usually overwinter in nest and dig out of the nest, in the spring, they are independent immediately. 

Painted Turtle Hatchling: Taken by Steve Barten, found at: http://www.chicagoherp.org/herps/turtle/Cpicta.htm

Turtles are an important component of animal communities in wetland ecosystems. Wetlands are among the most threatened habitats in the world, currently declining at about 1% each year, in the US they are declining by 1174 km² per year. One of the largest remnants is the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, which provides critical habitat to a wide range of migratory and resident animals. The study was conducted in this refuge to determine habitat preference by two species: the midland painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) and the common map turtle (Graptemys geographica). Turtles show habitat preference that not only differ between species, but also vary between age, sex and season within species. The two species chosen for this study have overlapping characteristics, so that intraspecific competition may also influence habitat use. The objective of this study was to examine patterns of habitat use by the sympatric species, Chrysemys picta and Graptemys geographica in the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, a costal wetland of the Great Lakes.

Habitat use by turtles was examined by trapping and radiotelemetry. Turtles were captured by hand and with basking traps. They were identified to species, sex, and life stage, given a permanent mark and released within a few meters of capture. The permanent marks were a unique pattern of notches filed into the marginal scutes of the shell. Other site information collected was water depth and surface water temperature for each trap on each day the trap was visited. In 2003, basking traps were deployed in three refuge-managed areas. Ten traps were placed in the three areas and their adjacent channels for a total of 60 traps. From June to July traps were checked every one to three days. In 2004, basking traps were placed in marshes and adjacent channels for a total of 40 traps. Traps were checked from the end of April to July, every one to three days. All traps were placed 150 meters apart. Radio transmitters were epoxied to a lightly sanded left posterior scute of the carapace of 20 turtles in 2003 and 23 turtles in 2004.

A total of 265 turtles were captured in 2003 (Chrysemys picta: 134 female adult, 51 male adult, and 11 juveniles; Graptemys geographica: 50 female adults, 1 male and 18 juveniles). In 2004 a total of 191 turtles were captured (Chrysemys picta: 97 female adult, 38 male adult, and 2 juveniles; Graptemys geographica: 32 female adults, 15 male and 5 juveniles). According to the authors, the most interesting result of the study was the difference in habitat use by the two methods used, trapping versus radiotelemetry. Capture data indicated a difference in habitat selection between the two species; Chrysemys picta was captured in marshes more than in channels and Graptemys geographica was captured more in channels than marshes. In contrast, radiotelemetry data demonstrated that the movement patterns of these two species were inconsistent with trapping data. One reason for this inconsistency could be attributed to an assumption made that turtles located within 15 meters of a channel by radiotelemetry were actually in the channel. In addition, another reason for this inconsistency is that there is an abundance of basking material in marshes versus the channels, thus turtles may have been choosing the basking traps in the marshes more than the channels based on natural basking structures. These results emphasize the importance of utilizing multiple sampling techniques in order to have the most accurate and well-rounded results.

Created by Amanda Playter