|
 Spotted Turtle
Clemmy
guttata
By Drew
Classification
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordala
Class
Reptlia
Order
Testudina
Family
Emydidae
Genus
Clemmy
Species
|
Physical
Description
The Spotted
turtle has a black shell with yellow spots. His under belly is the
color of a bumblebee. It is small, it has a red neck with an orange
spot in the middle of his head.
Diet and Feeding Habits
Spotted turtles eat
a variety of plant and animal foods, which are
consumed in the water. Feeding does not begin in spring until water
temperatures reach about 15°C. Vegetable foods include algae,
leaves
of soft aquatic plants, and water lily seeds. Animal foods include
worms, mollusks, crustaceans, adult and larval insects, amphibian eggs
and larvae, and carrion.
Reproduction
Spotted turtles
probably reach sexual maturity at an age of 7 to 14 years, with
northern animals probably taking
longer to mature than those living farther south. The females
nest in May - June, they lay up to 1 to 8 eggs. The female like to lay
their eggs in open sunny places. The eggs incubate 44 to 83 and young
emerge
in August.
Habitat
Spotted turtles
require clean, shallow, slow-moving bodies of fresh water with muddy or
mucky
bottoms and some aquatic and emergent vegetation. In
early spring spotted turtles spend a great deal
of time basking on logs, muskrat houses, and grass of sedge hummocks.
Role in the Ecosystem
The
range extends from southern Maine
and extreme Southern Ontario west to illinois, and south to
Florida in the east . Isolated colonies can be found in southern
Quebec, Southern Ontario, Central lillinois, Spotted turtles
spend their lives in marshy meadows , bogs, swamps, ponds, ditches or
other small bodies of still water. Spotted turtles are very sensitive
to pollution and toxins. People finding less
and less spotted turtles because people are taking them for pets. The
spotted turtle is
threatened in Maine.
Bibliography
Http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/wildlife/endspec/sptufs.html
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Clemmys_guttata.html
|
|
|