Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Painted tur­tles are one of the most com­mon tur­tles in North Amer­ica and are found from south­ern Canada to north­ern Mex­ico. (Cana­dian For­est Ser­vice, 2005; Kawartha Tur­tle Watch, 2005)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Painted tur­tles pre­fer liv­ing in fresh­wa­ter that is quiet, shal­low, and has a thick layer of mud.

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• freshwater

• Aquatic Biomes
• lakes and ponds
• rivers and streams

• Wetlands
• marsh
• swamp

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Painted tur­tles are brightly marked. They have a smooth shell about 90 to 250 mm long. Their shell acts as pro­tec­tion, but since the ribs are fused to the shell, the tur­tle can­not ex­pand its chest to breathe but must force air in and out of the lungs by al­ter­nately con­tract­ing the flank and shoul­der mus­cles. The painted tur­tle has a rel­a­tively flat upper shell with red and yel­low mark­ings on a black or green­ish brown back­ground. Males ma­ture at about 70 to 95 mm plas­tron (lower shell) length, usu­ally at 3 to 5 years of age. Fe­males at take longer (6 to 10 years) and are larger at ma­tu­rity (c. 100 to 130 mm plas­tron length). The growth rate, for both sexes is rapid dur­ing the first sev­eral years of the of their lives. Tur­tles con­tinue to grow slowly after ma­tu­rity, and this species may reach 250 mm cara­pace (upper shell) length and live for many decades. (Hard­ing, 1997)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Average mass

  57.5 g

  2.03 oz

• Average mass

  371.812 g

  13.10 oz

  AnAge

• Range length

  90 to 250 mm

  3.54 to 9.84 in

• Average basal metabolic rate

  0.0236 W

  AnAge

De­vel­op­ment

The sex of the tur­tle is de­ter­mined dur­ing a crit­i­cal phase of em­bryo­ge­n­e­sis ac­cord­ing to the in­cu­ba­tion tem­per­a­ture. These tem­per­a­ture-de­pen­dent rep­tiles lack sex chro­mo­somes. Low tem­per­a­tures dur­ing in­cu­ba­tion pro­duce males and high tem­per­a­tures pro­duce fe­males. Hatch­lings have two thresh­old tem­per­a­tures, 27 to 32 C and 22C. These thresh­olds may be im­por­tant to some north­ern or wood­land pop­u­la­tions. The avail­abil­ity of water in the nests is more im­por­tant than tem­per­a­ture in in­flu­enc­ing sur­vival, me­tab­o­lism, and growth of the em­bryos.

• Development - Life Cycle
• temperature sex determination

Re­pro­duc­tion

Mat­ing be­gins after hi­ber­na­tion and be­fore feed­ing be­gins when the water tem­per­a­tures are still low. Fall mat­ing may also occur. Tem­per­a­ture is a major en­vi­ron­men­tal cue for the reg­u­la­tion of the sea­sonal go­nadal cycle, but the ther­mal de­pen­dence of the re­pro­duc­tive sys­tem dif­fers markedly for the two sexes.

• Mating System
• polygynous

The breed­ing sea­son lasts from late spring to early sum­mer. Males ma­ture at about 70-95 mm plas­tron (lower shell) length, usu­ally at 3-5 years of age. Fe­males take longer (6-10 years) and are larger at ma­tu­rity (c. 100-130 mm plas­tron length).

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Breeding occurs once yearly.

• Breeding season

  The breeding season lasts from late spring to early summer.

• Range number of offspring

  4 to 15

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  6 to 10 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  3 to 5 years

In the early sum­mer fe­males lay 4 to 15 oval, soft-shelled eggs, in a flask-shaped hole. 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. The young hatch and dig out of the nest on their own, they are in­de­pen­dent im­me­di­ately.

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Painted tur­tles may live as long as 35 to 40 years, but most will not sur­vive for this long. (Hard­ing, 1997)

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  30.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Painted tur­tles bask in large groups on logs, fallen trees, and other ob­jects. The sun­ning helps rid them of par­a­sitic leeches. In many areas tur­tles hi­ber­nate dur­ing the win­ter months by bur­row­ing into the mud and al­low­ing their bod­ies to be­come very cold. Be­cause of their small body size, they can move eas­ily. Tur­tles dive quickly at the first hint of dan­ger. Painted tur­tles are di­ur­nal; that means they are ac­tive dur­ing the day. At night they will rest on the bot­tom of a pond or on a par­tially sub­merged ob­ject, such as a rock. Dur­ing the day, painted tur­tles will bask in the sun, some­times as many as 50 on one log, stacked on top of each other.

• Key Behaviors
• natatorial
• diurnal
• motile
• sedentary
• hibernation
• solitary

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Sound per­cep­tion is poor in tur­tles, but they do have a good sense of smell and color vi­sion. They use touch to com­mu­ni­cate with each other, par­tic­u­larly dur­ing mat­ing.

Food Habits

Painted tur­tles feed mainly on plants, small an­i­mals, such as fish, crus­taceans, aquatic in­sects, and some car­rion. Young painted tur­tles are mainly car­niv­o­rous, ac­quir­ing a taste for plants later in life. Be­cause they have no teeth, the tur­tle jaw has tough, horny plates for grip­ping food. Painted tur­tles must eat in the water, their tongue does not move freely and they can­not ma­nip­u­late food well on land.

• Primary Diet
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• fish
• carrion
• insects
• aquatic crustaceans

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• algae
• macroalgae

Pre­da­tion

A va­ri­ety of preda­tors will cap­ture painted tur­tles. rac­coons, ot­ters, mink, foxes, and other medium-sized preda­tors will prey on tur­tles and their eggs. Painted tur­tles are vig­i­lant and seek refuge in the water at the slight­est sign of dan­ger, they can also re­tract their head and legs into the pro­tec­tion of their shell.

• Known Predators

  • raccoons (Procyon lotor)
  • northern river otters (Lontra canadensis)
  • American minks (Neovison vison)
  • red foxes (Vulpes vulpes)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Painted tur­tles are im­por­tant preda­tors of small fish, crus­taceans, and other in­ver­te­brates in aquatic ecosys­tems of North Amer­ica.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Painted tur­tles are often used for ed­u­ca­tional pur­poses, they make ex­cel­lent pets with proper care.

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

As with many other rep­tile species, this species fre­quently has bac­te­ria liv­ing nat­u­rally in its guts that can be harm­ful to hu­mans (they are nor­mal mem­bers of the gut flora of the rep­tiles). In par­tic­u­lar, these tur­tles can be source of bac­te­ria in the genus Sal­mo­nella. This is why it is il­le­gal to sell small tur­tles as pets in the United States. Any­one keep­ing and han­dling tur­tles should be care­ful to main­tain hy­gienic meth­ods and wash their hands after han­dling.

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • carries human disease
• causes or carries domestic animal disease

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Painted tur­tles are rel­a­tively com­mon and abun­dant through­out most of their range. How­ever, in some areas they are threat­ened by the de­struc­tion of fresh­wa­ter habi­tats, such as ponds and small lakes. In some areas many painted tur­tles are killed on road­ways. In Canada, painted tur­tles have been placed on the fed­eral blue list, which iden­ti­fies an­i­mals con­sid­ered vul­ner­a­ble to human ac­tiv­i­ties or nat­ural events, but not im­me­di­ately threat­ened. (Cana­dian For­est Ser­vice, 2005; Hard­ing, 1997; Kawartha Tur­tle Watch, 2005)

• IUCN Red List

  No special status
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  No special status
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Painted tur­tles are the most com­mon and most widely dis­trib­uted tur­tles in the North Amer­ica. They are also fre­quently stud­ied.

Con­trib­u­tors

Katie Knip­per (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Ganzhorn, Dar­rie and Licht, Paul. 1983. The Reg­u­la­tion of sea­sonal go­nadal cy­cles by tem­per­a­ture in the painted tur­tle, Chry­se­mys picta. Copeia 2: 347-58.

Gutzke, William and Pauk­stis, Gary L. 1984. A low thresh­old tem­per­a­ture for sex­ual dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion in the painted tur­tles, Chry­se­mys picta. Copeia 2:546-7.

Cana­dian For­est Ser­vice, 2005. "Tur­tles of On­tario" (On-line). Nat­ural Re­sources Canada. Ac­cessed July 28, 2005 at http://​www.​glfc.​cfs.​nrcan.​gc.​ca/​landscape/​turt_​e.​html.

Hard­ing, J. 1997. Am­phib­ians and Rep­tiles of the Great Lakes Re­gion. Ann Arbor, Michi­gan: The Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan Press.

Kawartha Tur­tle Watch, 2005. "Mid­land Painted Tur­tle (Chry­se­mys picta mar­ginata)" (On-line). Kawartha Tur­tle Watch. Ac­cessed July 28, 2005 at http://​www.​trentu.​ca/​biology/​turtlewatch/​painted.​htm.