Painted Turtles

I know that there have already been posts about the midland painted turtles, Chrysemys picta, at Bachelor pond, But I figured that the basking behavior had to be shown. Painted turtles are readily recogniseable by their smooth unkeeled shells and their spectacular yellow and red coloring. One way to tell the midland painted turtle from the other types of painted turtles is that it has a large plastral blotch which is an oval in shape, and usually incorporates all of the plastral scutes. Males of this species have very long nails on their front feet. One of the uses for these nails is to tickle females during mating season. If you are not sure if you have caught a painted turtle try scraping at the shell with a fingernail, because as this species grows old the shell often becomes encrusted with a red or brownish buildup which can easily be removed to see what the shell looks like beneath. I've decided to supplement the basking with a picture from home, Medina County, to show the truly awesome coloration that these turtles can show.

Zack Mikolaj,
Miami University