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Home , Chicken turtle, Eastern mud turtle, Green sea turtle, Hawksbill sea turtle, Leatherback sea turtle, Loggerhead sea turtle

WATER

Range Bog

Bog Turtle • North America’s smallest turtle (3” to 4.5”); NC’s rarest • Have noticeable bright orange, yellow or red blotch on each side of face • Live in isolated spring-fed fen, sphagnum bogs, marshy meadows and wet pastures • Eat beetles, larvae, snails, seeds and millipedes • Females mature from 5-8 and mate from May to Yellow-bellied Slider June Range • Deposit 2-6 from June to July which hatch after 42 -56 days of incubation • Placed on NC’s threatened list in 1989

ENDANGERED

1 Yellow-bellied Slider

• Yellow patch on side of head – on females and juveniles • 5 to 8 inches • Underside of shell is yellow • Males smaller than females with longer, thicker tail and long fingernails • Juveniles eat more carnivorous diet Redbelly Turtle • Adults are – feeding = underwater • Males mature between 3-5 yrs • 5-7 old females lay 4 to 23 eggs from May to July • Eggs incubate 2-2.5 months and hatch between July- September • Help control and populations • Live in fresh water

Range

Red Belly Turtle

• 10-15” in length • Like deep water • Eat both and -insect larvae, crayfish, and tadpoles • Active from May thru October Snapping Turtle • Females lay 10-12 eggs in June-July which hatch Range sometime in late summer. • Young sometimes winter over in the until spring • Like to bask in the sun

2 Snapping Turtle

• 8-14 inches weighing from 10 to 50 lbs • Large head, small plastron, long tail & strong limbs • Males larger than females Range • Prefer to stay in the water where they are passive Common Musk Turtle • Will lunge and bite at enemies, if on dry land • Produce a musk • Eat both meat and vegetation

Common Musk Turtle

• 2 to 4.5” • Small plastron with single hinge • Also called the “stinkpot” turtle b/c of its ability to secrete a smelly musk from two glands on each side of its body Hatchlings • Snout is projected slightly and eyes are yellow or white • Has barbels on both the chin and the throat • Prefer lakes, ponds and quiet streams – dwell on bottom Range • Males have thick tales with sharp and horny end • Due to mobile body shape, can be found 6’ up a tree • Injured from fishing and boat propellers

3 Painted Turtle

• 4-7” in length • Most widespread turtle in North America • Live in ponds, lakes, marshes and slow-moving rivers with soft muddy bottoms • Spends most of the time in the water but will sun itself on logs or rocks and sometimes in large groups Range • Omnivores – young mostly eat meat but adults eat both meat and vegetation • Females lay 5-10 eggs which hatch in 10-11 weeks • Can survive w/o oxygen at 37.4 F for up to 5 months which is longer than any other air-breathing invetebrate

Spotted Turtle

• 3.5 to 4.5” • Secretive • Semi-aquatic with yellow spots on a smooth • Also have orange and yellow spots on head, neck and limbs • Prefer shallow, well-vegetated wetlands such as marshes, wet pastures, bogs, fens and swamps • Reach sexual maturity between 7-10 years; can live to 30 years • Usually HBC when traveling between wetlands • World Conservations Union lists as threatened Range

4 Striped Mud Turtle Range

• 3-4” in length • Have large plastron with two moveable hinges • Males have thick tail • Found in canals, ponds, lakes, cypress swamps but not Stripeneck Musk in swift moving water Turtle • Nest from March thru October and usually build nest near the shoreline in sand piles or decaying vegetation • Young hatch in 3-4 months and are quarter size • Eat plants, small aquatic animals and • Given the name “cowdung cooter” b/c will eat manure

Stripedneck Musk Turtle

• 3 to 4.5” • Many dark stripes lining head and neck • Two barbels on the chin

• Are diurnal and do most of feeding in the morning Range • Found in rivers and streams • Omnivorous preferring snails and • Listed as special concern in

5 Eastern Mud Turtle

• 3-4” in length • Is semi-aquatic so spends a lot of time on land

• Carapace is is keeless (lacks any pattern) and can be yellowish to Photo © Jim Harding brownish • Plastron is large with two moveable hinges Range • Eyes are yellow with dark clouding • Eat aquatic plants and organisms • Live in shallow streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and marshes • The male has a longer tail with prominent claw at the tip and two small horny patches on the inner surface of each hind leg.

Spiny Shoftshell Turtle 6 wks • Has rubbery, skin-covered shell with flexible edges that lacks • Nose is long and pig-like • 5-19” in length • Live in rivers, lakes or reservoir with sand or mud bottom and little vegetation Diamondback • Bask on logs or banks and will bury themselves in the sand or mud • Very fast swimmers and agile on land • Females lay 4-38 hard-shelled eggs in June that hatch in August or September • Eat crayfish, tadpoles, insects and occasional small Range

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• 4-9” in length • Have concentric ridges (pyramids) on carapace and large back feet • Lives in coastal marshes • Eats fish, , mollusks and insects • Solitary except to mate; Males=3 yrs, Females=6 yrs • Females only breed every 4 yrs or so Range • Lay 4-18 eggs in the spring that hatch after 60-100 days • Can adjust their water needs by secreting salt from their tear ducts when their systems becomes too salty

SPECIAL CONCERN

River Cooter

• 9-13” in length • Young cooters have a characteristic “C” on the 2 nd side but on older cooters this is often not visible • Found mainly in rivers and large streams • Like to bask on logs and rocks • Very skiddish and hard to approach Cooter • Powerful swimmers Range • Females are larger than males • Females lay around 20 eggs in May to June which hatch in August or September (90-100 days) • Herbivorous

7 Florida Cooter

• 9-13” in length • Look very similar to the River Cooter and Redbelly Turtle • Has a rounded chin • Inhabit wetlands, marshes, ponds and other still waters • Like to bask on logs and rocks • Herbivorous Range • Females lay around 20 eggs that hatch in about 90 days

Chicken Turtle

• 4-6” in length • Has similar appearance to the painted turtle Green Turtle • Netlike appearance to carapace • Long and striped neck with vertical stripes running down the back legs • Carapace is much longer than it is wide and is hingeless • Females larger than males and may nest anytime during the year Joseph MacKenzie, PA • May retain eggs for up to 6 months, if nesting conditions are not right • Inhabit freshwater with sluggish or still waterways • Males have long thickened tails • Wander long distances from water Range • Prefers tadpoles and crayfish but will eat plants

8 Green

• 36-48” in length and weighs 250-450 lbs • Actually colored brown; hatchlings are colored black • Inhabit salt water but will occasionally enter sounds and rivers during summer months • Like warm shallow water • Travel hundreds and thousands of miles to their own hatching grounds to mate and nest Atlantic • Females deposit from 110-115 eggs at night taking 2 hours to do so • Clutches are deposited very 2-4 years • Temperature of incubating eggs determines sex of hatchlings Range • Flesh is used in soups THREATENED

Atlantic Hawksbill Sea Turtle

• 30-35” in length weighing 95-165 lbs • Scutes on the carapace tend to overlap one another • Heads are tapered into a V-shape • Lateral and posterior area are serrated except in the old • Males have a long and thicker tail, bigger claws and concave plastron Range • Most commonly found in no more than 60 feet of sea water where there are hard bottoms or reef containing • Mate every 2-3 years • Use of shell in trade and commerce has lead to decline

ENDANGERED

9 Loggerhead Sea Turtles • Approximately 36” in length and weight 250 lbs • Named for their relatively large heads • Have callous-like traction scales beneath their flippers that allow them to “walk” on the floor • Reach sexual maturity around 35 years of age • occurs from Late March to Early June, eggs are laid between late April to early September and hatch between late June to mid-November Atlantic • Females lay 3-5 in a single nesting season • Occupy 3 different ecosystems over the course of their lifetimes – terresterial zone, oceanic zone and the neritic zone (nearshore are) • Eat conchs and whelks and bottom dwelling invetebrates Range

THREATENED

Atlantic Ridley Sea Turtle

• Also known as Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle • 23-27.5” weighing from 80-100 lbs • Smallest turtle in the • Almost circular shell • Males have a longer tail and more concave plastron • Inhabit shallow water and high saline sounds • Nest in 1-2 year cycles and lay 1-3 clutches per cycle • Females lay eggs between April and mid-August on days when it is cloudy, relatively cool and a strong northern wind is blowing Hatchling • Young hatch after 50-70 days, emerging just after dawn • Reach sexual maturity by 6 years of age Range • Eat , fish, , , snails, clams, and some marine vegetation

CONSIDERED MOST ENDANGERED

10 Leatherback Sea Turtle

• 53-70” in length and weighs from 650-1200 lbs • Largest living turtle in the world • 7 longitudinal ridges are found along the carapace with 5 similar ridges on the plastron. • Shell is covered by a smooth skin instead of scutes • Flippers are very large and lack claws • Lack the crushing chewing plates that most sea turtles have that feed on Female hard-bodied prey Eastern • Eat almost exclusively jellyfish Male • Live anywhere there is salt water, they spend most of their time far offshore Range • Are able to maintian their internal body temperature much higher than the surrounding water

ENDANGERED

Eastern Box Turtle • Young feed primarily on insects and stay hidden in leaf litter • Reach sexual maturity between 7-10 years of age • Only “land turtle” found in North Carolina and only one of two found in the • Females lay between 3 to 6 eggs each spring which hatch in late summer or early fall • State • Extremely slow to mature but long lived • Can inhabit a vast variety of habitats but prefer moist forested areas with plenty of underbrush • Not aquatic but will venture into shallow areas of water • Do not travel far usually live within a football field area • Hibernate in the winter in dirt up to two feet deep • Omnivores

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