Painted Turtle

A Common New Brunswick Turtle

Painted Turtle

The Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) is probably the most common turtle species found in New Brunswick.  It is more common in the south of the province in permanent ponds, streams and wet ditches.  It is mostly aquatic because it needs to be in water to eat its diet of aquatic insects, aquatic vegetation, worms, grubs, shellfish, and fish.

Painted Turtle

The Painted Turtle grows to about 10 to 18 cm in length (4 to 7 inches) and lives a long life, up to 40 years in captivity.  One wild individual was found to be 55 years old!  They cannot be reliably aged by counting growth rings as in some species.

The carapace (shell) is smooth on top and is a dark gray green colour and marked with red around the edges.  The underneath of the shell is called the plastron and is yellow.  The head and limbs are dark gray green streaked with yellow and red giving it a pleasing appearance.  The female turtle is larger than the male.  The male has a concave-shaped plastron, a longer tail and long claws on the front.  These adaptations aid the male in mounting the female and holding on in breeding which takes place on the bottom of the pond.  The female digs holes in sandbars where she lays 6 to 12 white eggs.  These may hatch in 2 to 3 months depending on the weather.  Some eggs may actually remain buried and hatch the next year.  Turtle eggs and hatchlings are vulnerable to predation by skunks, raccoons, foxes, rodents, and snakes.  Turtles are slow growing.  It takes 2 to 9 years for a male to reach maturity and 6 to 16 years for the female. Painted turtles spend the winter buried in mud at the bottom of ponds and streams.  They emerge as the sun melts the ice and warms the water in spring.

Painted Turtles Sunning on a Log

Painted turtles are social animals and in warm weather can be seen sunning themselves on a log or floating vegetation.  They are shy and will disappear if they see you approaching.  Painted turtles are found throughout the Maritime provinces.  Their range includes all of southern Canada southward to northern Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Painted Turtle, Male on Right

In the photo above note the turtle on the right has its foreleg withdrawn into the carapace.  Note the length of the claws on the foot.  This is likely a male.  

Turtles are ancient reptiles.  In fact, the ancestors of today's turtles appeared 200 million years ago.  That was before the dinosaurs!  They survived the dinosaur extinction and have remained relatively unchanged for 150 million years.  Turtles have no teeth.  Their mouth is formed like a horny bill enabling them to tear their food to eat.   Today's species of turtles living in North America and in the waters surrounding it are classified into 7 families.  

An interesting fact about this species is that the female stores the sperm she receives during copulation for up to 3 years.  She then uses it for successive egg layings.  The species is known to lay 2 to 5 clutches per season in the more southern parts of its range but here in the north, only one clutch is laid.  Another fact: the species was first described in 1783 by a German naturalist, Johann Gottlob Schneider and was given its official Latin name by John Edward Gray in 1855.