Painted Turtles in the United States
The story of a turtle that you can find in your own backyard
The first time I saw a painted turtle was at Belle Isle in February in the middle of a pond. I only saw one at first but as I spent more time, two more appeared. They were more active than I expected and were swimming and following each other.
I later discovered that what I had found was a painted turtle which are very common in the United States and North America.
This map displays the location of the observed painted turtle at Belle Isle in Richmond, VA.
Painted turtles can easily be identified from their red markings on the underside of their shells. They are often found in slow moving fresh waters and are most common in the United States and Canada.
Photo by iNaturalist user lukegrabow, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC).
This map shows the counties and states that painted turtles were observed in from November 2022 to April 2023.
Observations from iNaturalist were taken in all the states. The states were categorized into regions to show where painted turtles are most abundant.
From the table, it can be seen that the east coast has the highest number painted turtles, especially in the northeast.
Painted turtles often like to sunbathe on rocks and will lay their eggs during the warmer months. It can take anywhere from 72 to 104 days for the to hatch.
Males are often smaller than their female counterpounts and adults can range from 2 to 10 inches.
Photo by iNaturalist user dtread1, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC).
This is a heat map showing the density of the painted turtles. They are most dense along the east coast and are often found near the Piedmont region.
This graph shows the months that painted turtles emerge during. Month 1 is January and Month 12 is December. They are most likley to emerge durig the warmer months such as March compared to the colder months such as December.
It should be noted that month 5-10 are missing because this data collected was from November 2022 to April 2023.
These turtles are very common around the United States but are at risk because human interaction. Their freshwater habitat is at risk which is essential to their survival. These loveable turtles are often at risk of getting hit by cars on roads and dying.
Citations
Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta). Savannah River Ecology Lab. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://srelherp.uga.edu/turtles/chrpic.htm.
Painted Turtle. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Retrieved April, 25, 2023, from https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/species/chrysemys-picta#desc-range .
