northeast-flora-and-fauna

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...

I met some turtles last spring that I don't see a lot: Eastern Musk Turtles . There were a few individuals lying around; these were 2 of the better pictures that I got. These turtles don't bask very often, and both of these seemed to be pulling the old Common Snapping Turtle trick of quasi-basking half in and half out of the water. I suspect they were only basking this much because it was still early May and they needed the extra sunlight to shake off their winter dormancy. Most of you probably would have found these turtles easier than I did since they're considered to be a smelly turtle [1], indicated both by the "musk" part of their name and their "stinkpot" nickname. Musk turtles and mud turtles are different types of turtle, but are in the same family . I encounter mud turtles even less frequently than their musky cousins. May 10, 2023 at Delaware Raritan Canal Photo 282315053, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 10, 2023 at Delaw...

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: 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". Surprisingly for a turtle that's described as "almost entirely aquatic", they're also described as poor swimmers.  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...

Here's another  Eastern Musk Turtle , and another turtle I believe was looking for a place to lay eggs last May. I was looking down from a bridge and saw a turtle decisively climb out of the water. I scurried down to where the turtle was, and instead of jumping back in the water (which I would suspect if the purpose was to bask in the sun) the turtle seemed to be immersing itself in the vegetation. This turtle lays eggs in a shallow burrow or "shoreline debris". I'm thinking this one was in the process of finding suitable debris. The Eastern Musk Turtle is a relatively small turtle that lays 2-9 eggs. These eggs hatch after 100-150 days, so (assuming eggs were laid) hatching should occur between September 5 and October 25. (October doesn't give them much time to forage before  winter brumation , so maybe the earlier hatching is more likely in New Jersey.) May 28, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 133213809, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I believe this is an Eastern Musk Turtle , though I don't see them very often and only got one picture before the camera-shy fella swam off. (At least one person on iNaturalist supported this ID.) Certainly the carapace scutes look wrong for our most common basking turtles. And the turtle does seem to have a fairly domed carapace. And the Eastern Musk Turtles seem to have a pointier snout, which seems to be the case here. These guys are in the same family as the mud turtles like our Eastern Mud Turtle , which is probably their closest relative around here. The alternative name for the Eastern Musk Turtle is the (extremely flattering) Stinkpot. Both names allude to their ability to emit a foul/musky odor, possibly to deter predators. April 27, 2021 at Delaware-Raritan Canal Photo 127320577, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)