Eastern Mud Turtle at Donnelley WMA

Last Tuesday I visited the Donnelley wildlife management area twice. Once in the morning with my ornithology class and later in the afternoon with the herp class. During the morning trip as we were driving down one of the main roads through a dense wooded area I noticed out in front of the van was a turtle in the middle of the road. As we passed over the turtle, thankfully without hitting it, I mentioned I saw the turtle to my ornithology professor. He then suggested we stop the van and take a look at the turtle. I hopped out of the van and as I walked up to it I noticed it to be dark black/brown without any distinctive field marks on its carapace or on its head in general. As I walked closer to the turtle it pulled itself within its shell. Before it did so, I could tell that it was likely a mud or musk turtle based on head shape and shell shape that was not more dome-shaped like a box turtle. I picked the turtle up and examined it more closely before snapping a few pictures of it for further identification purposes. Looking at the turtle, I could tell that it had a large double-hinged plastron and smooth black/brown carapace. While I was not able to determine the sex of the turtle, based on the size and the lack of a middorsal keel it was likely an adult. At the time I saw it, it was attempting to cross the gravel road and was moving from a group of puddles in a ditch left by recent rainfall to the other edge of the road with another ditch next to dense woodlands. Based on my personal observations and confirmations from the field guide I determined the turtle to be an eastern mud turtle Kinosternon subrubrum. Eastern mud turtles are in the mud and musk turtle family Kinosternidae and are one of the 3 species of Kinosternidae found in South Carolina, the other two being the common musk turtle Sternotherus odoratus and the striped mud turtle Kinosternon baurii. Eastern mud turtles are semiaquatic turtles that often wander away from water and can often be found in ditches, wet meadows, small ponds, marshes etc. The turtle was distinguishable from the striped mud turtle because the carapace was not striped and it was distinguishable from the common musk turtle due to its large plastron with two hinges rather than one. Luckily we did not run over the turtle and I was able to set it back near the ditch it came from and let it go about its day.