Eastern Musk Turtle

I met yet another Eastern Musk Turtle about 2 months ago. This was the first spring that I was retired and a pandemic wasn't shutting down most parks and related areas, which is presumably why I recorded my first 3 confirmed musk turtle pictures.

Eastern Musk Turtles aren't believed to be faring poorly in New Jersey, though they're a little hard to spot because they spend a lot of time in the water. A few more facts about them:

  1. They can emit a musky-smelling liquid from a scent gland, but it's not for romance. Similar to skunks, it's intended to drive off predators. This is why another name for them is the unflattering "stinkpot".
  2. Surprisingly for a turtle that's described as "almost entirely aquatic", they're also described as poor swimmers. 
  3. What they seem to be better at than most turtles is probably tree-climbing. They are (at least in New Jersey) the most likely turtle species to fall into your canoe. I'm assuming they climbed low tree branches that hang over water to bask, and when a scary canoe comes along they attempt to escape by falling off the branch into the water only to find themselves in that very same scary canoe. 
  4. Between being poor swimmers and poor escape artists, these probably aren't the most competent turtles in the world. It's possible the other turtles poke fun of them behind their backs. (They won't make fun of them to their face though, because of that stinkpot thing.)

June 10, 2021 at Duke Farms
Photo 136368731, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

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