Species
Coastal plain cooter
Pseudemys floridana
A large, plant-eating basking turtle of southern Georgia's ponds, lakes and slow rivers.
Photo Tom Field (opens in a new tab) / iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab)
At a glance
- Size
- Shell usually 23 to 33 cm long
- Habitat
- Ponds, lakes, swamps, spring runs and slow rivers
- Diet
- Mostly water plants and algae
- In Georgia
- The Coastal Plain, south of the fall line
- Rabies vector
- No
Identification
- Key marks
- Dark, high shell with light lines; plain yellow underside; yellow stripes on head and neck
- Told apart from
- River cooter, whose underside has dark markings along the seams
- Told apart from
- Florida red-bellied cooter, which has a reddish shell and arrow-shaped mark on the snout
- Where to look
- Basking on logs in quiet water
Behaviour
Coastal plain cooters bask for long periods and graze beds of water plants. Females often dig a main nest with one or two smaller "satellite" holes beside it, and may drop some eggs in those.
Why they matter
As grazers they help keep water plants in balance, and their eggs and young feed many animals along the shore.
Reproduction and lifecycle
Nest — A main nest, often with smaller satellite holes, in sandy soil
Eggs — Usually 10 to 30
Incubation — About 80 to 150 days
Hatchlings — Some overwinter in the nest
Maturity — At several years
Lifespan — Several decades
Living around people
- Help a cooter across a road in the direction it was heading.
- Shoreline plants and fallen logs give cooters food and places to bask.
Misconceptions
- Extra holes beside a nest mean a predator dug it up. Female cooters often dig satellite holes themselves.
Related species
Seasonal activity
When this species is breeding, and when there are nests on the ground. Mowing during the shaded months is how most nests are found.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breeding | Jan: no | Feb: no | Mar: no | Apr: no | May: no | Jun: no | Jul: no | Aug: no | Sep: no | Oct: no | Nov: no | Dec: no |
| Active nests | Jan: no | Feb: no | Mar: no | Apr: no | May: no | Jun: no | Jul: no | Aug: no | Sep: no | Oct: no | Nov: no | Dec: no |
| Notes | Basking on warm days | Basking on warm days | Active | Courtship | Nesting | Nesting | Feeding | Hatching | Hatchlings emerge | Feeding | Slowing down | Mostly inactive |
Where it lives
Recorded in 6 states and provinces. Each one links to the other animals there, and to the rehabilitators licensed for them.
If you found one
Answer a few questions and you will get a specific answer for what you are looking at.
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