northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's a River Cooter along the Delaware Raritan Canal last May. I'm going to try and explain how I arrived at this identification. Despite living in New Jersey, they're not documented in my Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of New Jersey [1], so I went to the internet for some basic information . Here's what I can tell you: The plastron is yellow, not reddish-orange (female) or pink (male) that you would expect to see in a Northern Red-bellied Cooter . Also, Northern Red-bellied Cooters frequently have jet black heads and necks, while this turtle has noticeable yellow there. The carapace lacks the prominent lines around the scutes that you'd see in a Painted Turtle . It also lacks the rich tapestry of lines on the head/neck that you'd see in a Common Map Turtle . A Red-eared Slider normally has a prominent red blotch about where you'd expect an ear to be, and a Yellow-bellied Slider should have a prominent yellow blotch in that same spot. I also thi...

Here's a few Common Map Turtles from last spring. In the 1st picture it sort of looked like the turtle on the right was trying to put an arm [1] around its companion in an expression of comradery. While we don't know a lot about the social lives of turtles, it's possible that ( like snakes ) they may develop relationships of trust and/or comfortable familiarity with some other turtles. Still, it's probably more likely that the turtle had more selfish motivations: "I was hoping to climb up onto his back to catch some rays." Or, "I really wanted that spot on the branch, and hoped I could push him off of it." When I go turtle-watching, I do try and spot our map turtles [2], but I rarely manage to do so. I'm told they're 1 of our more skittish turtles, so maybe a lot of the turtles that jump in the water before I can get a look at them were actually map turtles. Similar to my Eastern Musk Turtle pictures posted yesterday, it's possible that...

Here's a turtle I haven't shown before, though for uncommon reasons. The Common Map Turtle  (aka Northern Map Turtle) is considered to be fairly abundant around here and readily basks in the sun. It is considered difficult to spot/photograph though, since they are considered one of our more "wary" turtles - it doesn't take much to trigger them to dive into the water and away from danger (perceived or real). The Common Map Turtle gets its name from the lines on its carapace. They look sort of like the contour lines on maps that delineate elevation. Unfortunately these marks fade as the turtles age. But I'd argue that the lines on the head/neck/legs also look like contour lines, and these are pretty prominent in my picture. The female Common Map Turtles are nearly twice as big as the males, so if you ever find yourself saying "Wow - look at the size of that map turtle!" you're probably looking at a female. As some reptiles do, their gender is deter...