Spotted Turtle
Category: Turtle
Facts about Spotted Turtles. "Scientific name for Spotted Turtle is Clemmys guttata". Spotted Turtle is a Clemmys type of turtle that comes from the Emydidae family. The Spotted Turtles partly live on land and partly live in water, and they are the only existing variety of genus Clemmys. A Spotted Turtle is a marine omnivorous animal that lives in a range of semi-marine that is, in the other sense, it lives in low, freshwater regions, such as marshes, flooded forests, damp meadows, woodland streams and bogs in the southern parts of Canada and the Eastern parts of the United States, and the eastern parts of Great Lakes and the Appalachian Mountains
Features of Spotted Turtles
The Spotted Turtle is a small, semi-marine turtle that attains a maximum carapace length, ranging from 3 1/8 inches (7.8 cm) to 4 3/4 inches (11.9 cm) upon maturity. The upper shell of the Spotted Turtle is wide, soft, low dark-colored that varies in its precise color, ranging from the black color to a bluish black color with many yellow color small round spots. The spotting design in the Spotted Turtle extends from their head, to the neck and out onto their limbs. Female and male spotted turtles can be differentiated by variations in the shape of their plastron shape and the color of their chin and eyes.
Even though, perhaps minor, the Spotted Turtle appears with the right side of its upper shell with less spots than the right side. Spots in the Spotted Turtles can always be seen on their neck, head and limbs. The bottom shell of the Spotted Turtle is orange-yellow or simply yellow in color and a black color spot can be seen in each part. However, by means of age, melanism of the plastron in the Spotted Turtles, increases pending the whole thing becomes black.
The head of the Spotted Turtle is black in color and its upper jaw is nicked. On each side of its head is a big orange blotch, and there are also numerous yellow color bands varying in size. The skin on the dorsal side of the Spotted Turtle is black in color with meager yellow color spots whereas skin on its ventral side may be bright in color that includes pink, orange or red. These frivolously colored areas differ geologically and their tail has yellow color striping.
Female and male Spotted Turtle breed can be distinguished right from their birth. The male turtle has a brown color chin and eyes, with an elongated, chunky tail. The Spotted Turtle turtle will have a yellow color chin and its eyes will be orange in color, and their tail is smaller than the male turtles. Additionally, the underneath shell of male turtle is curved in, whereas it is either even or u-shaped in female turtles. Moreover, female Spotted Turtles grow to be somewhat bigger than males, and they have more spots than the male turtles.
Diet of Spotted Turtles
The Spotted Turtle is marine omnivorous, and it consumes completely in the water, feeding on plant matter, as well as aquatic plants, green algae, and other animal foods, such as the larvae of water insects, slugs, worms, millipedes, crustaceans, spiders, salamanders, tadpoles and several types of small fish.
Behavior of Spotted Turtles
The Spotted Turtle is one variety whose gender is decided by temperature during the embryonic growth. During the extreme heat of summer and the freezing temperatures of winter, the Spotted Turtle happen to be inactive during ecologically adverse conditions. However, the turtle appears to be moderately tolerant of famine conditions. These turtles will be active during the early spring, and are habitually active at relatively freezing water temperatures in that season. The Spotted Turtle are extremely active in April and May in the northern parts of their range. During the hottest part of the summer season, usually when the temperature of the water goes beyond 30 degrees Centigrade, they may aestivate earthly or aquatically for longer time periods.
The average lifespan of the Spotted Turtle ranges from 25 years to 30 years in the wild, and in the captive, they live up to 50 years.