California painted turtle

The **California painted turtle** (*Chrysemys picta californianus*) is a subspecies of painted turtle (*Chrysemys picta*) that originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced throughout the slow-moving fresh waters across California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, southern Washington, and Baja California to help boost biodiversity. The adult California painted turtle is female is about 25 cm (10 inchee) long; the male is slightly smaller. The California painted turtle's top shell is dark and smooth, without a ridge. Its skin is olive to black with red, orange, or yellow stripes on its extremities. The California painted turtle's shell has a large gray mark on the bottom shell. The California painted turtle is omnivorous and eats aquatic vegetation, algae, and smaller water animals including insects, crustaceans, and small fish. Although they are frequently consumed as eggs or hatchlings by rodents, canines, and snakes, the adult turtles' hard shells protect them from most predators. Reliant on warmth from its surroundings, the California painted turtle is active only during the day when it basks for hours on logs or rocks. During winter in colder areas, the California painted turtle hibernates, usually in the mud at the bottom of water bodies. The California painted turtles mate in spring. Females dig nests on land and lay eggs between legs mid-spring and early summer. Hatched California painted turtles grow until sexual maturity: 2 years for males, 4 for females. While habitat loss and road killings have slightly reduced the turtle's population, its ability to live in human-disturbed settings has helped it remain one of the most abundant turtle in North America. Adults in the wild can live for more than 60 years. The California painted turtle's shell is around 25 cm (10 inches) long, oval, smooth with little grooves where the large scale-like plates overlap, and flat-bottomed. The color of the top shell (carapace) varies from olive to black. Darker specimens are more common where the bottom of the water body is darker. The bottom shell (plastron) is yellow, sometimes red, sometimes with dark markings in the center. Similar to the top shell, the turtle's skin is olive to black, but with red and yellow stripes on its neck, legs, and tail. As with other pond turtles, such as the bog turtle, the California painted turtle's feet are webbed to aid swimming. The head of the turtle is distinctive. The face has only yellow stripes, with a large yellow spot and streak behind each eye, and on the chin two wide yellow stripes that meet at the tip of the jaw. The California painted turtle's upper jaw is shaped into an inverted "V" (philtrum), with a downward-facing, tooth-like projection on each side. The hatchling has a proportionally larger head, eyes, and tail, and a more circular shell than the adult. The adult female is generally longer than the male, about 25 centimeters (10 inches) versus 20 centimeters (7.8 inches). For a given length, the female has a higher (more rounded, less flat) top shell. The female weighs around 500 grams (18 oz) on average, against the males' average adult weight of roughly 300 grams (11 oz). The female's greater body volume supports her egg-production. The male has longer foreclaws and a longer, thicker tail, with the anus (cloaca) located further out on the tail. The California painted turtle has a very similar appearance to the red-eared slider (the most common pet turtle) and the two are often confused. The California painted turtle can be distinguished because it is flatter than the slider. Also, the slider has a prominent red marking on the side of its head (the "ear") and a spotted bottom shell, both features missing in the California painted turtle. The conservation status of the California painted turtle is **Least Concern** due to successful conservation efforts, the California painted turtle's wide range and its tolerance to many of the human activities.