Species

Painted turtle

Chrysemys picta

A small, smooth-shelled pond turtle trimmed in red and yellow, found in north Georgia.

Photo Alex Stach (opens in a new tab) / iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab)

At a glance

Size: Shell usually 10 to 18 cm long, smooth and flattened
Habitat: Ponds, lakes, marshes and slow streams with soft bottoms and basking spots
Diet: Insects, snails, small fish, carrion and water plants
In Georgia: North Georgia, mainly the Piedmont and mountains; scarce farther south
Rabies vector: No

Identification

Key marks: Smooth, dark olive to black shell with red markings on the edge; yellow stripes on the head
Told apart from: Pond slider, which has a yellow blotch or red stripe behind the eye and a rougher shell
Where to look: Basking on logs and mats of vegetation in quiet water

Behaviour

Painted turtles bask for hours on sunny days and feed in the shallows. Their young are remarkable: hatchlings of northern populations can spend the winter in the nest and survive partial freezing, and in Georgia many emerge in spring rather than autumn.

Why they matter

Painted turtles eat insects and carrion and graze water plants, and their eggs and young are food for many animals. Their hatchlings' tolerance of cold has made them a subject of research into how living tissue survives freezing.

Reproduction and lifecycle

Nest — Dug in sunny soil near water
Eggs — Usually 4 to 10
Incubation — About 70 to 80 days
Hatchlings — Often stay in the nest until spring
Maturity — At 3 to 10 years
Lifespan — Over 30 years

Living around people

A painted turtle crossing a road can be helped across in the direction it was heading.
Leaving logs in ponds gives turtles somewhere safe to bask.

Misconceptions

Hatchlings that come out in spring were laid in spring. Many hatched the previous autumn and spent the winter underground.

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.

Breeding and active nests by month for this species
	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	Inactive under water	Inactive	Basking on warm days	Active; courtship	Nesting	Nesting	Feeding	Hatching	Some hatchlings emerge; others stay in the nest	Feeding	Slowing down	Inactive

Where it lives

Recorded in 49 states and provinces. Each one links to the other animals there, and to the rehabilitators licensed for them.

Canada

If you found one

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