When the shell is dry, the grooves take on a spider web pattern. A noticeable midrib or keel runs front to back. The bottom shell is yellow with each segment blotched black along its side. On males, the lower shell is concave for mating. A black, blunt head and brown limbs are highlighted red or yellow on throat and soft connecting flesh.
Males have long, thick tails with the cloacal opening, or anus, located outside the shell's edge.
Females have slighter tails with the cloacae opening within shell boundaries. Putting these together means the wood turtle is semi-aquatic, living along forested rivers and streams. Water pollution, irrigation, and forest erosion have tainted many of its former haunts. Active by day, April to November, wood turtles are omnivorous and consume insects, mussels, carrion, berries, dandelions and other succulent herbs. In late fall, wood turtles inhabit stream banks and hibernate over winter in large community burrows.