page_title: Spotted turtle
section_title: Notes
hierarchical_section_title: Spotted turtle / Notes
caption_attribution_description: Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata) at the Buffalo Zoo
context_page_description: The spotted turtle, the only species of the genus Clemmys, is a small, semi-aquatic turtle that reaches a carapace length of 8–12 cm upon adulthood. Their broad, smooth, low dark-colored upper shell, or carapace, ranges in its exact colour from black to a bluish black with a number of tiny yellow round spots. The spotting patterning extends from the head, to the neck and out onto the limbs. Males and females can be distinguished by differences in plastron shape and eye and chin colouration.
  Spotted turtles are aquatic omnivores that inhabit a variety of semi-aquatic or in other words, shallow, fresh-water areas such as flooded forests, marshes, wet meadows, bogs and woodland streams in southern Canada and the eastern US: the eastern Great Lakes and east of the Appalachian Mountains.
context_section_description: The spots on spotted turtles vary greatly throughout their range. They can have up to a hundred spots, while some have no spots at all. Spotted turtles shed their scutes in small pieces occasionally resulting in completely smooth shelled specimens. These are very intelligent turtles and have been tested like the wood turtles in mazes and have been proven to have the brain capacity of a mouse. These turtles are only active in the cooler spring months. The spotted turtle is declining throughout eastern North America due to habitat loss and poaching. One study focused specifically on the Southeastern population, and recorded that females had greater shell heights, heavier body masses, and longer plastrons than males. In another study, where radio-telemetry was used, spotted turtle behavior was observed in northeastern America, where distinct seasonal movement patterns revealed that spotted turtles exhibited a positive association in wetlands hosting abundant wood frog egg masses in spring and from spring to late summer, a negative association in forested wetlands was detected. Spotted turtles require frequent terrestrial movements for their diverse habitat requirements which exposes them to potential threats including unsustainable sources of adult mortality such as road kill and illegal collection. Recovery action is necessary to prevent decline of spotted turtles since this species has been determined to have a high risk of extinction in several areas ranging from South Carolina up to Maine in the US and even further north into Ontario, Canada, mitigation requires spatial and temporal shifts in habitat use.
caption: On a log among aquatic vegetation
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