Common Mud
Common Musk
Alligator Snapper
Red-eared Slider
AQUATIC
TURTLES OF
KENTUCKY
Smooth Soft-shell
Painted Turtle
Common Map
Eastern River Cooter
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 Softshell
• Eastern Spiny Softshell
Taxonomy
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
•
Subphylum: Vertebrata
• Class: Reptilia
•
Subclass: Anapsida
Order: Chelia or Testudines
Family: Chelydridae Snapping turtles
Family: Kinosternidae Mud and Musk turtles
Family: Emydidae Sliders and Cooters
Family: 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 KINOSTERNIDAE
Common Musk
Sternotherus odoratus
Eastern Mud
Kinosternon subrubrum
subrubrum
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, slowmoving, 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 EMYDIDAE
Mississippi Map
Common Map
Graptemys pseudogeographica
kohni
Graptemys pseudogeographica
pseudogeographica
Graptemys pseudogeographica
ouachitensis
Graptemys geographica
Midland Painted
Southern Painted
Chrysemys picta picta
Chrysemys picta dorsalis
False Map
Ouachita Map
Family EMYDIDAE (con’t)
Red-eared Slider
Trachemys scripta elegans
Hieroglyphic River Pseudemys concinna
Cooter
heiroglyphica
Eastern River
Cooter
Pseudemys concinna
concinna
Common Map Turtle
Common Map
• Yellow and olivebrown 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
Soft-shell
Trionyx mutica mutica
Eastern Spiny
Soft-shell
Apalone spinifera
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
• 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
• 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
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)
