Fast facts
Common name: Painted turtle
Scientific name: Chrysemys picta
Range in MA: Found across the entire state
Fun fact: Their name comes from their painted-liked skin!
Identification tip: Painted turtles have yellow spots and stripes on their heads and necks.
Description
Painted turtles are a very common, smooth-shelled, aquatic turtle in Massachusetts. They have a dark olive to black carapace, with two or three narrow, olive bands that run along the front edges of the carapace scutes. The edge of the carapace is bordered top and bottom with red and black designs. Their plastrons are yellow, sometimes with one or two dark, irregular blotches (particularly in western half of state). Painted turtles have yellow spots and stripes on their head and neck, as well as red stripes on their neck and legs. The common “sun turtle” of New England, so called because of its habit of basking conspicuously on emergent logs and rocks, the painted turtle is probably our most abundant turtle species.
Habitat
Painted turtles can be found in most permanent, open wetland habitats. The densest populations occur in shallow, weedy, mud-bottomed habitats offering lots of basking sites, but every river, lake, pond, backwater, and beaver flowage in the Commonwealth seems to support at least a few individuals.
Life cycle and behavior
Females may travel considerable distances from water in May and June to nest, and usually choose sunny locations with fine-grained, unvegetated, sandy soils for nesting locations. The average nest contains 5-8 white, elliptical eggs, and some females may lay two clutches in a season. Eggs take about 80 days to hatch, and the young from late nests may overwinter in place and emerge the following spring. Young painted turtles are highly carnivorous, but the diet becomes more vegetarian with age. This turtle, unlike many of its relatives, grows and matures relatively quickly, achieving adulthood in 6-10 years, but longevity is probably around 35-40+ years for the majority of individuals.
