Painted Turtle

Male painted turtle

Catherine Boston

  • October 26, 2020
  • Written by director

I found this painted turtle catching some rays of sunshine and was impressed with the length of his foreclaws.  The length of the foreclaw is one way to tell a male painted turtle from a female.  Males have longer ones (which they make use of during mating) and so this one, I assume, is a "he".  It is often painted turtles that we see congregating on the logs in the reservoir and soon they will escape the cold by heading underwater where they have multiple adaptations that allow them to survive.  

Recent Posts
Archive