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1
Animal Information
Michigan Turtles
Table of Contents
Blanding’s Turtle………………………………………………………………………………………2
Common Map Turtle…………………………………………………………………….………….4
Common Snapping Turtle………………………………………………………….……………..6
Eastern Box Turtle………………………………………………………………….…………..……8
Painted Turtle…………………………………………………………………………………………10
Red-Eared Slider……………………………………………………………………………………..12
Spotted Turtle…………………………………………………………………………………………14
Wood Turtle……………………………………………………………………………………………16
2
John Ball Zoo Habitat – There are 3 Blanding’s turtles located in the Hillside Habitat.
One can also be found in the Red Barn.
Individual Animals: 3 Male, 1 Undetermined
Undetermined
o Housed in Upper Red Barn
o Hatched September 2014
Wild (Michigan)
o Arrived August 29, 2016
The Hillside 3 arrived:
o May 07, 2008 from a private donor
o November 17, 2016 from Mesker Park Zoo (Indiana)
o November 18, 2016 from Children’s Zoo at Celebration Square (Saginaw, MI)
Life Expectancy
Can reach over 70 years of age.
Statistics
Length – 6-9 inches
Weight – 1.6-3 pounds
Diet – Omnivore
Wild – algae, leaves of soft aquatic plants, fish, fish eggs, frogs, crustaceans, adult and
larval insects, and carrion.
Predators – Northern short-tailed shrews, Striped skunks, Virginia opossums, raccoons, foxes,
and the North American River Otter.
Most predation is on eggs, and juveniles.
Habitat
Blanding’s turtles are semi-aquatic, living
mostly in shallow wetland habitats where
aquatic vegetation is abundant.
Region
Native to Canada, stretching as far west as
southeastern Ontario and as far east as
southern Nova Scotia. They continue
southward to the United States. With a range
including the Great Lakes region, this reptiles’
range stretches as far northeast as Maine and
as far northwest as South Dakota and Nebraska,
including southeastern New York, Pennsylvania,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, southern
Michigan, southeastern Minnesota, New
Hampshire, as well as Ohio.
Blanding’s Turtle Emydoidea blandingii
3
Reproduction – Polyandrous: females mate with several males during on breeding season.
The females reach sexual maturity at 14 to 21 years, averaging maturity at 18 years.
Males tend to reach sexual maturity at around 12 years.
The females have all of the control in the courtship process when it comes to choosing
their mates. However, during courtship, the males are very aggressive and are the ones
who seem to be in control, mounting the females and grabbing their carapaces.
The females tend to mate with the same males each year.
Mating takes place year round, but mostly the start of
spring in March and early April.
o Mating takes place at night.
Females will only nest and lay eggs once a year, between
the last weeks of June and the beginning of July.
Clutches are products of more than one father, and may
be cared for by multiple male turtles, usually two, but
occasionally up to three mates.
Clutch sizes range from 3 to 19, averaging around 10 eggs.
The incubation period typically lasts between 80 and 128 days.
Females leave the eggs once they bury them in a safe nesting spot, and the males watch
over the eggs from then on until the final days of the incubation period.
Behavior
Blanding’s turtles are mostly aquatic, they commonly emerge from the water to rest on
logs, sedge clumps, or any terrestrial land that is close to their aquatic homes.
Overwinter in both terrestrial and aquatic habitats.
On land males will travel, on average, over 6 miles in a day.
Adaptations
The hinges of the ventral shell are able to move.
Conservation Concerns
Road mortality
Habitat destruction
Conservation Ask
Be thoughtful while connecting and engaging with Nature
o If you care, leave it there
o Help turtle cross the road
Blanding’s Turtle Emydoidea blandingii
4
John Ball Zoo Habitat – Located in the Hillside Duck and Turtle habitat.
Individual Animals: 1 Female
Female
o Wild Hatch (Michigan)
Date: Unknown
o Arrived July 02, 2008
Life Expectancy
Can live as long as 20 years.
Statistics
Length
o Female: 7-10 inches
o Males: 3.5-6.5 inches
Diet – Omnivore
Wild
o Females: clams and crayfish.
o Males: aquatic insects and small crustaceans.
o Both are also known to eat snails, dead fish, and some plant material.
Predators
Raccoons, Skunks, Foxes, North American River Otters, and Coyotes.
Habitat
Ponds, river-bottoms, and lakes
Region
From southern Quebec and northwestern
Vermont.
West through the Great Lakes and into
southern Wisconsin and eastern
Minnesota.
South to Kansas, northeastern Oklahoma,
Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama and then
northwestern Georgia.
It also occurs in the Susquehanna River
system located in Pennsylvania and
Maryland and also in the Delaware River.
Common Map Turtle Graptemys geographica
5
Reproduction
They breed in the spring and the fall.
Mating takes place in deep waters.
The nesting period lasts from May to July.
The female usually lays two or multiple
clutches in one breeding season.
Clutch size ranges from 6 to 20 eggs.
They hatch after 50 to 70 days of
incubation and emerge in August or
September.
Behavior – Diurnal
They must eat in the water.
Dormant from November through early April.
Exhibits basking behavior.
Conservation Concerns
Road mortality
Habitat loss
Water pollution
Conservation Ask
Be thoughtful while
connecting and engaging with Nature
o If you care, leave it there
o Help turtle cross the road
Common Map Turtle Graptemys geographica
6
John Ball Zoo Habitat – Located in the North America Turtle habitat (Weather permitting).
Individual Animals: 1 Male
Birth date and location unknown
Arrived October 07, 2012
o From a Private Donor
Life Expectancy
Wild: up to 30 years
Under Managed Care: 47 years
Statistics – Largest species of turtle native to Michigan
Length – Carapace: 8-18.5 inches
o Tail is almost as long as the shell
Weight – 8.8-35 pounds
Diet – Omnivore
Wild – carrion, invertebrates, fish, birds, small mammals, amphibians, and a surprisingly
large amount of aquatic vegetation.
Predators – None once they are full grown.
The eggs and hatchlings of snapping turtles may be eaten
by other large turtles, great blue
herons, crows, raccoons, skunks, foxes, bullfrogs, water
snakes, and large predatory fish, such as largemouth bass.
Habitat
Fresh or brackish water. They prefer water bodies with
muddy bottoms and abundant vegetation because
concealment is easier.
Region
From S. Alberta and east to Nova Scotia in the north, extending south all the way to the
Gulf of Mexico and into central Texas.
Reproduction
Over most of its range, the common snapping turtle mates from late March to
November.
Over much of North America, the main nesting period of this species is between mid-
May and mid-June.
Using its hind feet, the female common snapping turtle digs a flask-shaped nest, usually
in relatively loose sand, vegetable debris.
In most populations of the common snapping turtle,
only one clutch is laid per breeding season.
The eggs are roughly the size of a ping-pong ball.
Common Snapping Turtle Chelydra serpentina
7
A clutch consists of between 25 and 45 eggs.
Incubation last 75-95 days.
Adaptations
The tail has saw-toothed keels on it.
Behavior – Diurnal
This species is seldom seen basking, but can
often be seen floating just below the water’s
surface.
Adults sit and wait for prey to swim near it
instead of actively seeking it out.
Most common snapping turtles
enter hibernation by late October.
Hibernation usually ends around April, but
this varies depending on the location.
Conservation Concerns
Habitat loss and degradation
Pet trade
Road-kill and other casual human-induced mortality occurs.
Conservation Ask
Be thoughtful while connecting and engaging with Nature
o If you care, leave it there
o Help turtle cross the road
Be mindful of wildlife and the environment as you make every day purchasing decisions
o Choose your pets responsibly
Common Snapping Turtle Chelydra serpentina
8
John Ball Zoo Habitat – Located in the Natural Treasures building.
One can also be found in the Red Barn.
Individual Animals: 3 Males
Male – Ted (darker coloration)
o Born February 1995 (Estimate)
Location unknown
o Arrived February 19, 2015
Male – Bill (lighter coloration)
o Birth date and location unknown
o Arrived March 08, 2008
Male – Carl (split beak)
o Housed in Upper Red Barn
o Birth date and location unknown
o Arrived 1985
Life Expectancy – Can live over 100 years.
Statistics – Length – 4.3-7 inches, females tend to be smaller
Diet – Omnivore
Wild – snails, insects, berries, fungi, slugs, worms, roots, flowers, fish, frogs,
salamanders, snakes, birds, and eggs.
Predators – Few species can prey effectively on adults due to their ability to close their shells.
Habitat – Forest, savanna, or grassland.
Region – Exclusively North America
Ranging from southern Maine to Florida along the East
Coast, and west to Michigan, Illinois, eastern Kansas,
Oklahoma, and Texas.
Reproduction – Polygynandrous – both males and females
can have multiple mates.
Sexual maturity is reached around 5 years of age.
Mating season begins in the spring and continues throughout summer until October.
Males sometimes fall backwards after copulation, and if they can't right themselves they
die of starvation.
Nesting occurs from May through July.
Nests are usually dug in sandy or loamy soil, using the hind legs. Then eggs are laid in
this cavity and the nest is
carefully covered up again.
Eastern Box Turtle Terrapene carolina carolina
9
A female may lay fertile eggs for up to four years
after one successful mating.
There are 3-8 eggs laid, though usually 4 or 5, and
they are elliptical with thin, white, flexible shells.
Incubation last roughly 3 months
Adaptations
Hinged plastron (ventral part of shell) that
allows box turtles to close their shells almost
completely.
Male Box turtles eyes tend to be more colorful
than females. The red or orange coloration may
help females to identify males from a distance.
Behavior – Diurnal
When it gets too hot, they hide under decaying logs and leaves,
crawl into mammal burrows, or in mud. When it is very hot, they
go into shady pools and puddles to cool off.
In the northern regions they go into hibernation in October or November and emerge
from hibernation in April.
o Further south, they remain active later in the year.
To hibernate, they burrow as much as two feet deep into loose earth, mud, stream
bottoms, old stump holes, or mammal burrows.
Eastern Box Turtles are the only land turtle native to Michigan.
Conservation Concerns
Degradation, fragmentation and destruction of Box Turtle habitat is widespread
Numbers are also declining due to the pet trade.
While listed as vulnerable, their population is decreasing and they are a species of
concern in many states.
Conservation Ask
Be thoughtful while connecting and engaging with Nature
o If you care, leave it there
o Help turtle cross the road
Be mindful of wildlife and the environment as you make every day purchasing decisions
o Choose your pets responsibly
Eastern Box Turtle Terrapene carolina carolina
10
John Ball Zoo Habitat – There are 3 Painted turtles located in the North America Turtle Habitat.
Individual Animals: 2 Males, 1 Female
Male
o Hatch location and date: Unknown
o Arrived July 10, 2008
From public donor
Male
o Wild Hatch (Michigan)
Date: Unknown
o Arrived April 26, 2008
Female
o Hatch location and date: Unknown
o Arrived March 10, 2008
From public donor
Life Expectancy
Painted turtles may live as long as 35 to 40 years.
Statistics
Length – 3.5-9.8 inches
Weight – 13 ounces
Diet – Omnivore
Wild – plants, small animals, such as fish, crustaceans, aquatic insects, and some carrion.
Predators
Mink, raccoons, foxes, North American River Otters, and other medium-sized predators.
Habitat
Painted turtles prefer living in freshwater that is
quiet, shallow, and has a thick layer of mud.
Region
Painted turtles are one of the most common turtles
in North America and are found from southern
Canada to northern Mexico.
The Painted Turtle is Michigan’s state reptile.
Painted Turtle Chrysemys picta
11
Reproduction – Polygynous: having more than one female as a mate at one time.
Mating begins after hibernation and before feeding
begins when the water temperatures are still low.
The breeding season lasts from late spring to early
summer.
Males mature at about 3-5 years of age. Females
take longer at 6-10 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.
Behavior – Diurnal
Painted turtles must eat in the water, their tongue does not move freely and they
cannot manipulate food well on land.
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.
They use touch to communicate with each other, particularly during mating.
Adaptations
They have no teeth, the turtle jaw has tough plates for gripping food.
Sound perception is poor in turtles, but they do have a good sense of smell and color
vision.
Conservation Concerns
Road mortality, habitat loss, and pollution
Conservation Ask
Be thoughtful while connecting and engaging with Nature
o If you care, leave it there
o Help turtle cross the road
Painted Turtle Chrysemys picta
12
John Ball Zoo Habitat – Located in the North America Turtle habitat (Weather permitting).
Individual Animals: 3 Females
2 Females
o Hatch date estimated between 1995-1997
o Location unknown
o Arrived April 10, 2008
From Akron Zoological Park
Female
o Hatch date and location unknown
o Arrived August 20, 2013
Public donation
Life Expectancy
Can live over 35 years
Statistics
Length
o Female: 7.8 inches
o Male: 11 inches
Diet – Omnivore
Wild – Algae, plants, sponges, snails, clams, crayfish, insects, arachnids, and carrion.
Predators
Alligators, Crows, Mink, Raccoons, North American River Otters, and Coyotes.
Habitat
Most freshwater habitats. Quiet
waters with soft bottoms and
basking sites.
Region
Mississippi valley from Illinois to
the Gulf of Mexico.
Red-eared Slider Trachemys scripta elegans
13
Reproduction
Sexual maturity is typically 2-5 years, but the
timing is dependent on many factors.
Courtship behavior occurs in the spring and fall.
Courtship occurs in the water.
Nesting typically occurs between April and July.
Clutch size ranges from 2-23eggs.
A single turtle can lay up to 5 clutches in a year.
Eggs hatch in late summer or early fall.
Behavior – Diurnal
Basks in the sunlight for thermoregulation.
Hibernates in the winter in Northern regions.
Sleeps by resting on the bottom or floating at the
surface of the water.
Conservation Concerns
Habitat degradation and loss
Road mortality
Pollution (particularly pesticides and heavy metals).
Conservation Ask
Be thoughtful while connecting and engaging with Nature
o If you care, leave it there
o Help turtle cross the road
Red-eared Slider Trachemys scripta elegans
14
John Ball Zoo Habitat – There is 1 spotted turtle located in the Frogs and friends building.
Individual Animals: 1 Male, 3 Undetermined
Male
o Housed in Frogs and Friends
o Hatched September 2010
Unknown location
o Arrived February 24, 2011
Private Donor
Life Expectancy
Can reach over 100 years of age.
Statistics – Smallest species of turtle native to Michigan
Length – 4.5 inches
Diet – Omnivore
Wild – algae, leaves of soft aquatic plants, water lily seeds, worms, mollusks,
crustaceans, adult and larval insects, amphibian eggs and larvae, and carrion.
Predators – Raccoons, Common Snapping Turtles, Muskrats and Foxes.
Most predation is on eggs, and juveniles.
Habitat
Shallow waters with a soft bottom substrate and some submergent and emergent
vegetation. Sedge meadows, boggy ponds, fens, tamarack swamps, and slow, muddy
streams.
Region
Eastern North America: from Canada to Northern Florida
including the Midwest.
Within this range, the Spotted Turtle is spottily distributed
in the remaining suitable habitat, and most populations are
small and colonial in nature.
Behavior
Spotted Turtles tend to become inactive in the warmest
part of the summer.
When surprised while basking, Spotted Turtles will dive into
the water and bury themselves in the bottom mud.
Spotted Turtle Clemmys guttata
15
Reproduction
Sexual maturity at a carapace length of 3.5 inches (around 7-14 years of age).
Male Spotted Turtles may fight each other, presumably over access to females.
Courtship involves the male chasing the female under water while nipping and biting her
legs and carapace; he then mounts her shell and bites at her head and neck.
Copulation occurs in shallow water and may last for an hour.
Nesting can occur from late May through June.
Females typically lay only one clutch of from 1 to 8 eggs per year, though a few may lay
a second, smaller clutch a few days after the first.
Nesting females seek open, sunny locations that offer moist, but well-drained, soils.
The sex of the hatchlings is determined by nest temperature during the middle third of
the incubation period; cooler experimental temperatures produced mostly males, and
warmer temperatures produced only females.
Conservation Concerns
Pet trade
Road mortality
Habitat destruction
Sensitivity to pollution in waterways
Conservation Ask
Be thoughtful while connecting and engaging with Nature
o If you care, leave it there
o Help turtle cross the road
Be mindful of wildlife and the environment as you make every day purchasing decisions
o Choose your pets responsibly
Spotted Turtle Clemmys guttata
16
John Ball Zoo Habitat – Located in the North America Turtle habitat (Weather permitting).
One can also be found in the Red Barn.
Individual Animals: 2 Females
Female – Harding
o Housed in Upper Red Barn
o Hatched between April and August 2003
Location unknown
o Arrived February 19,2005
Public Donor
Female
o Housed in the North America Turtle Habitat
o Hatched between April and August 2003
Location unknown
o Arrived February 19,2005
Public Donor
Life Expectancy – Wood Turtle can reach 60 years of age.
Statistics – Carapace Length – 6.3-9.8 inches
Diet – Omnivore
Wild – leaves, flowers, berries, fungi, slugs, snails, worms, and insects.
o Opportunistically consume young mice or eggs, or scavenge dead animals.
Predators – Few species can prey effectively on adults.
Raccoons prey upon nests.
Habitat – Forest, rivers, and streams
Region – Small area of eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S.
Reproduction
Wood turtles in the wild usually reach sexual
maturity between 14 and 20 years of age.
Courtship may include a mating "dance" in which
the male and female face each other and swing
their heads back and forth; perhaps more
frequently the male simply pursues
the female while nipping at her limbs
and shell and then mounts her
carapace.
Mating is most frequent in spring
and fall.
The female excavates the nest with
her hind feet, creating a globular
cavity about 2-5 inches deep.
Wood Turtle Glyptemys insculpta
17
Clutch size ranges from 3 to 18 eggs (usually 5
to 13).
Only one clutch is produced each year, and
females may not reproduce every year.
Incubation requires from 47 to 69 days.
Hatchlings generally emerge from their nests in
late August or September and move to water.
Adaptations
The scutes, or scales, on the wood turtles shell show concentric annual growth that can
be used to approximate the turtle age.
Behavior – Diurnal
They can capture earthworms by thumping the
ground with their forefeet or the front of the
plastron. It is thought that the worms may
mistake the vibrations caused by this thumping
for the approach of a mole or perhaps a hard
rain, and come to the surface, only to be
grabbed by the hungry turtle
Conservation Concerns
Habitat degradation, fragmentation and destruction are widespread in Wood Turtles'
areas of occupancy, from residential and recreational developments.
Predation by raccoons is significant, and believed to result in no recruitment in
Michigan.
Conservation Ask
Be thoughtful while connecting and engaging with Nature
o If you care, leave it there
o Help turtle cross the road
Support Global and Local Conservation programs
o Donate time/money to the Zoo
Volunteer
Become a member, return visit, make purchase
JBZ participates in a head-starting program for Wood Turtles
Wood Turtle Glyptemys insculpta