Reliant on warmth from its surroundings, the painted turtle is active only during the day when it basks for hours on logs or rocks. During winter, the turtle hibernates, usually in the mud at the bottom of water bodies. The turtles mate in spring and autumn. Females dig nests on land and lay eggs between late spring and mid-summer. Hatched turtles grow until sexual maturity: 2–9 years for males, 6–16 for females.
Introduction
Painted turtle
Painted turtle | Introduction
Hatched turtles grow until sexual maturity: 2–9 years for males, 6–16 for females. Incubation lasts 72–80 days in the wild and for a similar period in artificial conditions 72–80 days 72–80 days
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Incubation lasts 72–80 days in the wild and for a similar period in artificial conditions. In August and September, the young turtle breaks out from its egg, using a special projection of its jaw called the egg tooth. Not all offspring leave the nest immediately, though. Hatchlings north of a line from Nebraska to northern Illinois to New Jersey typically arrange themselves symmetrically in the nest and overwinter to emerge the following spring. The hatchling's ability to survive winter in the nest has allowed the painted turtle to extend its range farther north than any other American turtle. The painted turtle is genetically adapted to survive extended periods of subfreezing temperatures with blood that can remain supercooled and skin that resists penetration from ice crystals in the surrounding ground.
Painted turtle | Growth
The hardest freezes nevertheless kill many hatchlings. Immediately after hatching, turtles are dependent on egg yolk material for sustenance. About a week to a week and a half after emerging from their eggs (or the following spring if emergence is delayed), hatchlings begin feeding to support growth. The young turtles grow rapidly at first, sometimes doubling their size in the first year. Growth slows sharply at sexual maturity and may stop completely. Likely owing to differences of habitat and food by water body, growth rates often differ from population to population in the same area. Among the subspecies, the western painted turtles are the quickest growers.
Painted turtle | Growth
Reliant on warmth from its surroundings, the painted turtle is active only during the day when it basks for hours on logs or rocks. During winter, the turtle hibernates, usually in the mud at the bottom of water bodies. The turtles mate in spring and autumn. Females dig nests on land and lay eggs between late spring and mid-summer. Hatched turtles grow until sexual maturity: 2–9 years for males, 6–16 for females.
Painted turtle | Introduction
If the weather is unsuitable, for instance a too hot night in the Southeast, she delays the process until later at night. Painted turtles in Virginia have been observed waiting three weeks to nest because of a hot drought. While preparing to dig her nest, the female sometimes exhibits a mysterious preliminary behavior. She presses her throat against the ground of different potential sites, perhaps sensing moisture, warmth, texture, or smell, although her exact motivation is unknown. She may further temporize by excavating several false nests as the wood turtles also do.
Painted turtle | Egg-laying
Painted wood turtles are oviparous. Females lay 3-5 eggs at a time. Eggs at low temperatures can be dormant early stages, and can sleep for some time at low temperatures, when the temperature returns to normal incubation can proceed.
Painted wood turtle | Breeding
Nesting is done, by the females only, between late May and mid-July. The nests are vase-shaped and are usually dug in sandy soil, often at sites with southern exposures. Nests are often within of water, but may be as far away as , with older females tending to nest further inland. Nest sizes vary depending on female sizes and locations but are about deep. Females may return to the same sites several consecutive years, but if several females make their nests close together, the eggs become more vulnerable to predators. The female's optimal body temperature while digging her nest is .
Painted turtle | Egg-laying
The painted turtles mate in spring and fall in waters of . Males start producing sperm in early spring, when they can bask to an internal temperature of . Females begin their reproductive cycles in mid-summer, and ovulate the following spring. Courtship begins when a male follows a female until he meets her face-to-face. He then strokes her face and neck with his elongated front claws, a gesture returned by a receptive female. The pair repeat the process several times, with the male retreating from and then returning to the female until she swims to the bottom, where they copulate.
Painted turtle | Mating
Before laying her eggs, the female may prepare several false nests. After a proper area is found, she will dig out a small cavity, lay about seven eggs (but anywhere from three to 20 is common), and fill in the area with earth. Oval and white, the eggs average in length and in width, and weigh about . The nests themselves are deep, and digging and filling it may take a total of four hours. Hatchlings emerge from the nest between August and October with overwintering being rare although entirely possible. An average length of , the hatchlings lack the vibrant coloration of the adults.
Wood turtle | Life cycle
Depending on the species, the eggs will typically take 70–120 days to hatch. When the turtles hatch, they squirm their way to the surface and head toward the water. There are no known species in which the mother cares for her young. Sea turtles lay their eggs on dry, sandy beaches. Immature sea turtles are not cared for by the adults. Turtles can take many years to reach breeding age, and in many cases, breed every few years rather than annually.
Turtle | Ecology and life history
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 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, versus . For a given length, the female has a higher (more rounded, less flat) top shell.
Painted turtle | Description
In spring and summer, the females nest in sand while the males look for food. Females lay 5–17 eggs at a time. The incubation of the eggs takes 73 to 80 days, and the eggs hatch at around . Hatchlings are about long. Their natural lifespan is 40 to 55 years.
Plymouth red-bellied turtle | Life cycle
To understand painted turtle adult age distributions, researchers require reliable methods. Turtles younger than four years (up to 12 years in some populations) can be aged based on "growth rings" in their shells. For older turtles, some attempts have been made to determine age based on size and shape of their shells or legs using mathematical models, but this method is more uncertain. The most reliable method to study the long-lived turtles is to capture them, permanently mark their shells by notching with a drill, release the turtles, and then recapture them in later years. The longest-running study, in Michigan, has shown that painted turtles can live more than 55 years.
Painted turtle | Population features
Adults of "C. mccordi" may have up to three breeding periods in a year. A typical clutch consists of eight to fourteen eggs. The size of an egg is and may weigh . The first hatchlings emerge after incubating for three months, and the last hatchlings leave after four months. Upon emerging, a hatchling's shell is about and has yellow spots on the plastron, which become darker in a few weeks until the entire plastron becomes almost black. As the juveniles grow, their coloration progressively becomes paler until they finally achieve the color of the adults.
Roti Island snake-necked turtle | Reproduction
The female weighs around on average, against the males' average adult weight of roughly . 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.
Painted turtle | Description
As the male is smaller than the female, he is not dominant. Although not directly observed, evidence indicates that the male will inflict injury on the female in attempts of coercion. The female stores sperm, to be used for up to three clutches, in her oviducts; the sperm may remain viable for up to three years. A single clutch may have multiple fathers.
Painted turtle | Mating
Females produce an average of 10 eggs per buried nest; usually they bury two nests per season. Incubation ranges from 2 to 4 months. The eggs are laid under approximately of sand. The eggs are white-colored. Each egg on average measures in length and in width, weighing on average . Only 31% of the female population lays egg each year. The sex of baby turtles is determined by the temperature of the sand during incubation, lower temperatures increase the number of females.
D'Orbigny's slider | Reproduction
Exhibiting a reproductive strategy unique among reptiles, embryos of "C. rugosa" can survive at least 12 weeks of submersion. The hatchlings emerge approximately 70 days after resumption of development.
Northern snake-necked turtle | Reproduction
Painted wood turtles can grow to a maximum length of 20 cm. It has a dome-shaped carapace and the plastron has a continuous ventral line. It has red stripes on its body and it has webbed feet.
Painted wood turtle | Description
The painted turtle ("Chrysemys picta") is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The turtle is the only species of the genus "Chrysemys", which is part of the pond turtle family Emydidae. Fossils show that the painted turtle existed 15 million years ago. Four regionally based subspecies (the eastern, midland, southern, and western) evolved during the last ice age. The adult painted turtle female is long; the male is smaller. 5-6" The turtle's top shell is dark and smooth, without a ridge.
Painted turtle | Introduction
Females of "C. insculpta" reach maturity at 18 or more years, and males around 16 years. They lay their eggs late in the dry season on sandy river banks. When the offspring are fully developed, they will stay inside the eggs in hibernation until conditions are suitable for emergence. Hatching may be triggered when the eggs have been flooded with water or by a sudden drop in air pressure signaling an approaching storm. Using environmental triggers, along with vibrations created by other hatching turtles in the same clutch, gives a better chance for survival. Using a universal trigger rather than simply waiting for incubation to finish means they all hatch at the same time.
Pig-nosed turtle | Breeding
Incubation ranges widely depending on temperature, but averages 50 to 70 days.
Eastern box turtle | Reproduction
After mating, the female turtle may lay 5-20 eggs that hatch about 60 days when needed.
Chinese stripe-necked turtle | Reproduction
She then covers the nest with sand and returns to the sea. At around 45 to 75 days, the eggs hatch during the night and the hatchlings instinctively head directly into the water. This is the most dangerous time in a turtle's life. As they walk, predators such as gulls and crabs grab them. A significant percentage never make it to the ocean. Little is known of the initial life history of newly hatched sea turtles. Juveniles spend three to five years in the open ocean before they settle as still-immature juveniles into their permanent shallow-water lifestyle. It is speculated that they take twenty to fifty years to reach sexual maturity.
Spawn (biology) | Sea turtles
Adult females of "K. baurii" nest from September to June. The eggs, which are slightly over 2.5 cm (1 in) long, hatch 13 to 19 weeks later. The hatchlings are about 2.5 cm (1 inch) in straight carapace length and, unlike the adult turtles, have keeled carapaces.
Striped mud turtle | Reproduction
All turtles and tortoises start as eggs. Red-footed tortoise eggs are roughly spherical and average around and weigh with two to seven eggs in a clutch, although the same females may lay multiple clutches near each other. The incubation period is 105–202 days, with 150 being typical. Hatchlings use an egg tooth to open the egg. They stay in the egg or nest for several days. Hatchling shells are bent almost in half in the egg and take some time to straighten out. The hatchling's carapace is flat, somewhat creased from being folded in the egg, and has serrated sides.
Red-footed tortoise | Lifecycle
Eggs hatch in 152 days at 29 Celsius, some eggs may overwinter in the nest before hatching. temperature influences the sex of the embryos, with a 25 degrees Celsius incubation temperature resulting in all males. Warmer temperatures result in an increase in female embryos, with only 11 percent becoming males at incubation temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius.
Chicken turtle | Reproduction
Females lay from three to 12 eggs in a previously excavated hole 6-8 in (15–20 cm) deep, and then depart. Incubation is quite long in this species, lasting usually between 5 and 8 months. Juveniles are between 1.2 and 1.6 inches (3.2 and 4 cm) upon hatching. Unlike the yellow coloration of the adults, the juveniles are a white to an off-white shade. Juveniles attain the high-domed carapace soon after hatching.
Radiated tortoise | Reproduction
Annual survival rate of painted turtles increases with age. The probability of a painted turtle surviving from the egg to its first birthday is only 19%. For females, the annual survival rate rises to 45% for juveniles and 95% for adults. The male survival rates follow a similar pattern, but are probably lower overall than females, as evidenced by the average male age being lower than that of the female. Natural disasters can confound age distributions. For instance, a hurricane can destroy many nests in a region, resulting in fewer hatchlings the next year. Age distributions may also be skewed by migrations of adults.
Painted turtle | Population features
The eggs are laid at the peak of dry season so the nest will not be washed away with the floods of the rainy season. Eggs incubated below 32 degrees Celsius will hatch as males, while those incubated above 32 degrees Celsius will hatch as females. Within a few days after hatching, the young turtles begin to forage for food alone. This food includes vegetable matter, grasses, fruits, leaves, carrion and mollusks.
Yellow-spotted river turtle | Introduction
Females will use their hind feet to dig a shallow nest in loose soil; this process can take 2 to 6 hours. Eggs are generally deposited shortly after the digging phase, and each egg is deployed into a particular position. Eggs are oblong, 3 centimeters long, creamy white, and leathery. Nests are then concealed with grass, leaves, or soil. A female can lay anywhere from 1 to 5 clutches of about 1 to 9 eggs in a single year, or even delay laying her clutch if resources are scarce. Females exhibit delayed fertility, wherein sperm can be stored in oviducts for several years until conditions are favorable for fertilization and laying.
Eastern box turtle | Reproduction
A cold-blooded reptile, the painted turtle regulates its temperature through its environment, notably by basking. All ages bask for warmth, often alongside other species of turtle. Sometimes more than 50 individuals are seen on one log together. Turtles bask on a variety of objects, often logs, but have even been seen basking on top of common loons that were covering eggs. The turtle starts its day at sunrise, emerging from the water to bask for several hours. Warmed for activity, it returns to the water to forage. After becoming chilled, the turtle re-emerges for one to two more cycles of basking and feeding.
Painted turtle | Daily routine and basking
The complete sequencing of the genetic code for the painted turtle was at a "draft assembled" state in 2010. The turtle was one of two reptiles chosen to be first sequenced.
Painted turtle | DNA
The eggs inside the flask-shaped pits, being incubated by the sun and the metabolic heat, hatch after 50 to 60 days. The hatching takes place during the night or in the predawn period to avoid predation by jackals, dogs, and birds. The walls of the pit gradually collapse, thereby allowing the eggs on the lower strata to rise upwards. After the emergence of hatchlings, they immediately head for the open sea. The tiny replicas of turtles are in a frenzy to enter the sea water. This is the most spectacular sight. The hatchlings orient themselves by the reflection of stars on seawater or by the brighter horizon and head en masse towards the sea.
Gahirmatha Beach | Hatching
In the spring, when the water reaches , the turtle begins actively foraging. However, if the water temperature exceeds , the turtle will not feed. In fall, the turtle stops foraging when temperatures drop below the spring set-point. During the winter, the turtle hibernates. In the north, the inactive season may be as long as from October to March, while the southernmost populations may not hibernate at all. While hibernating, the body temperature of the painted turtle averages . Periods of warm weather bring the turtle out of hibernation, and even in the north, individuals have been seen basking in February.
Painted turtle | Seasonal routine and hibernation
Blanding's turtle takes 14–20 years to reach sexual maturity. Mating probably occurs in April and early May with nesting beginning in early June and lasting throughout the month. The clutch size varies from region to region. In New York, the clutch size ranges from 5–12 eggs with an average of eight.
Blanding's turtle | Reproduction
Cleavage of the cell begins within hours of fertilization, but development is suspended during the gastrulation period of movements and infoldings of embryonic cells, while the eggs are being laid. Development then resumes, but embryos remain extremely susceptible to movement-induced mortality until the membranes fully develop after incubating for 20 to 25 days. The structural differentiation of body and organs (organogenesis) soon follows. The eggs hatch in about 60 to 70 days. As with other reptiles, the nest's ambient temperature determines the sex of the hatchings. After nightfall, the hatchings dig to the surface and walk to the sea. Leatherback nesting seasons vary by location; it occurs from February to July in Parismina, Costa Rica.
Leatherback sea turtle | Development of offspring
After the hole is dug, the female then starts filling the nest with her clutch of soft-shelled eggs. Depending on the species, a typical clutch may contain 50–350 eggs. After laying, she re-fills the nest with sand, re-sculpting and smoothing the surface, and then camouflaging the nest with vegetation until it is relatively undetectable visually. She may also dig decoy nests. The whole process takes 30 to 60 minutes. She then returns to the ocean, leaving the eggs untended. Females may lay 1–8 clutches in a single season. Female sea turtles alternate between mating in the water and laying their eggs on land.
Sea turtle | Life cycle
A nest cavity 14–20 cm deep is usually dug. Clutches contain 3-14 elongated (35-45 x 21–29 mm) eggs. There are reports of clutches with a maximum of 15 ovoid (50-51 x 20–21 mm), white eggs, that tend to become bluish at hatching time. The natural incubation period lasts 70–144 days. Hatchlings have 34.1-35.2 mm carapaces and weigh 7 g; This species is omnivorous, feeding on aquatic plants, like water hyacinths and weeds, and animal prey such as crabs and snails; it also scavenges.
Indian roofed turtle | Breeding
The work of digging the nest may take up to five hours; the speed with which it is dug seems to be dependent upon the relative hardness of the ground. It usually takes place when the ambient air temperature is at least 78 °F (27 °C). Once the nest is dug, the female begins to lay an egg every three minutes. Clutches may contain 15-30 or more eggs. After the eggs are laid, the female fills in the nest, taking an hour or more to fully cover them all. Incubation should be 86 to 88 °F, and will take from 90 to 120 days.
African spurred tortoise | Breeding
The breeding period usually lasts from October to December. Females mate several times and can produce as many as 5,000 eggs in several clutches during the season. The eggs are laid in water either singly or in small groups, on the bottom or attached to plants. They hatch after two to six days according to the temperature. The tadpoles undergo metamorphosis after between twenty-two and sixty days of development and the juveniles are about one centimetre (0.4 in) long when they leave the water.
Iberian painted frog | Biology
It usually takes slightly more than two weeks for the eggs to hatch. The hatching process will take up 3 to 4 days, during which the newly hatched nymphs will immediately clamber unto their mother's abdomen. They were observed to remain phoretic for at least 17 days (Magnien "et al.", 2008).
Tessaratomidae | Maternal care
In early summer, the female will lay between two and ten eggs in the banks of her aquatic habitat. Three to five months later the hatchlings break out of their shells. These young turtles often fall prey to predators such as fish and birds. Females will lay one to three clutches of eggs per year.
Eastern long-necked turtle | Reproduction
The female lays an average of 75–123 eggs (average varies depending on region), which are placed during the night in a deep nest that is dug on the beach. The eggs are laid during the low water season and hatch as the water starts to rise. If it rises too fast or too early, the nest is flooded and the young die within the eggs. As long as nests are not dug up by predators, the hatching success rate is usually high, averaging at 83%. The eggs hatch after about 50 days and the sex of the young depends on the nest temperature (females at higher temperatures, males at lower).
Arrau turtle | Breeding and life cycle
The painted turtle's shell is 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 painted turtle's feet are webbed to aid swimming.
Painted turtle | Description
The painted turtle ("C. picta") is the only species in the genus "Chrysemys". The parent family for "Chrysemys" is Emydidae: the pond turtles. Emydidae is split into two sub families; "Chrysemys" is part of the Deirochelyinae (Western Hemisphere) branch. The four subspecies of the painted turtle are the eastern ("C. p. picta"), midland ("C. p. marginata"), southern ("C. p. dorsalis"), and western ("C. p. bellii"). The painted turtle's generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek words for "gold" ("chryso") and "freshwater tortoise" ("emys"); the species name originates from the Latin for "colored" ("pictus"). The subspecies name, "marginata", derives from the Latin for "border" and refers to the red markings on the outer (marginal) part of the upper shell; "dorsalis" is from the Latin for "back", referring to the prominent dorsal stripe; and "bellii" honors English zoologist Thomas Bell, a collaborator of Charles Darwin.
Painted turtle | Taxonomy and evolution
The eggs hatch after an incubation period of 12 or 13 days, and the young are able to fly within two weeks of hatching.
Buttonquail | Introduction
These turtles reach sexual maturity sometime between 4 and 6 years of age. They mate at the surface or under water. A male will hold the female's carapace with its forelimbs and may bite at her head, neck, and limbs. Females may retain sperm for almost a year after copulation. The females lay 8–30 eggs in a clutch and may lay from 2 to 5 clutches each year. The eggs are laid in a nest that is about across at the entrance. Eggs are spherical and average about in diameter. After an incubation period of about 60 days, which may be longer or shorter depending upon temperature, the eggs hatch.
Chinese softshell turtle | Life cycle
Eggs may be in danger if they are laid below or close to the high tide line, in an area of high foot traffic, or of low sand quality. A nest can be relocated within the first six hours after it was laid, which is facilitated by our intensive beach patrolling. Since the incubation time for sea turtles in our locale is approximately sixty days, the Conservancy hosts sea turtle hatching events from late July through mid-October. After a nest has hatched, or if the nest is overdue, it will be excavated to determine nesting success. Success is determined by counting the number of eggs that successfully hatched vs.
Bald Head Island Conservancy | Sea Turtle Program
Incubation begins immediately after the first egg is laid. The eggs hatch in 15 to 16 days and the chicks take about 15 to 17 days to fledge (in Japan). Both parents feed the chicks with crop milk. Multiple broods may be raised and nests built by the pair or by others may be reused.Nest reuse may possibly increase the chances of predation. In Japan the principal predators of nestlings and eggs were crows and magpies and to a lesser extent cats and snakes.
Oriental turtle dove | Breeding
From the eggs hatch to adulthood takes 4 years and involves 15 instar phases (14 moults).
Tachypleus tridentatus | Description
Later, hatchlings emerge and scramble into the water. Those that reach maturity may live to 80 years in the wild.
Green sea turtle | Introduction
It is found in Mexico (from Sonora southwards) and Central America, as far south as Costa Rica.
Painted wood turtle | Distribution
This is believed to aid in the hatch success rate of the eggs in dry years. It is believed that in their natural habitat that spring rains induce the turtles to begin nesting. The eggs hatch in the fall and some hatchlings leave the nest and spend the winter in aquatic habitats, but most of the hatchlings burrow below the nest and wait until spring to emerge and then move to the water. This is believed to aid in survival rates of the hatchlings, because some water bodies freeze solid during the winter. Another benefit of waiting to emerge in the spring is that hatchlings enter an environment of increasing resources, such as heat, light, and food.
Yellow mud turtle | Reproduction
At night, the turtle drops to the bottom of its water body or perches on an underwater object and sleeps. To be active, the turtle must maintain an internal body temperature between . When fighting infection, it manipulates its temperature up to 5 °C (8 °F) higher than normal.
Painted turtle | Daily routine and basking
Courtship of "P. subrufa" is held year round. The male will follow the female, nodding his head in front of hers. If she is not responsive, she will nip and snap and walk away. If she is willing, she responds by nodding her head or just standing still, so he can mount her. While mating, each of the turtles shakes its head. The female will lay two to ten eggs on average, normally during late spring and early summer. The eggs are placed in a flask-shaped nest about deep. The eggs hatch in 75– 90 days.
African helmeted turtle | Reproduction
The painted turtle hibernates by burying itself, either on the bottom of a body of water, near water in the shore-bank or the burrow of a muskrat, or in woods or pastures. When hibernating underwater, the turtle prefers shallow depths, no more than . Within the mud, it may dig down an additional . In this state, the turtle does not breathe, although if surroundings allow, it may get some oxygen through its skin. The species is one of the best-studied vertebrates able to survive long periods without oxygen. Adaptations of its blood chemistry, brain, heart, and particularly its shell allow the turtle to survive extreme lactic acid buildup while oxygen-deprived.
Painted turtle | Seasonal routine and hibernation
Painted turtles are most vulnerable to predators when young. Nests are frequently ransacked and the eggs eaten by garter snakes, crows, chipmunks, thirteen-lined ground and gray squirrels, skunks, groundhogs, raccoons, badgers, gray and red fox, and humans. The small and sometimes bite-size, numerous hatchlings fall prey to water bugs, bass, catfish, bullfrogs, snapping turtles, three types of snakes (copperheads, racers and water snakes), herons, rice rats, weasels, muskrats, minks, and raccoons. As adults, the turtles' armored shells protect them from many potential predators, but they still occasionally fall prey to alligators, ospreys, crows, red-shouldered hawks, bald eagles, and especially raccoons.
Painted turtle | Predators
Based on comparative measurements of turtles from throughout the range, they subordinated species to subspecies and eliminated "treleasei". Since at least 1958, the subspecies were thought to have evolved in response to geographic isolation during the last ice age, 100,000 to 11,000 years ago. At that time painted turtles were divided into three different populations: eastern painted turtles along the southeastern Atlantic coast; southern painted turtles around the southern Mississippi River; and western painted turtles in the southwestern United States. The populations were not completely isolated for sufficiently long, hence wholly different species never evolved. When the glaciers retreated, about 11,000 years ago, all three subspecies moved north.
Painted turtle | Classification
The period of emergence and retreat into the sea after nesting takes 45 to 55 minutes. Due to the shrinkage of the nesting beach, overcrowding of turtles is observed during nesting. The eggs which are scooped out by successive nesters is known as "doomed" egg as it would never be able to hatch. Sporadic nesting is also not uncommon. These eggs are mostly damaged by predators. The nesting females emit hissing noise at the time of laying eggs as the intake of oxygen is maximum at that moment. After laying eggs, the female turtle fills up the pit with sand by the flippers and tries to camouflage the pit site.
Gahirmatha Beach | Migration
Many herpetologists report females depositing another egg a few weeks later while some recreational collectors report multiple eggs at a time. Shallow indentations are made to deposit eggs, and then they are lightly covered by sand and/or leaf litter.
Twist-necked turtle | Life history
Searching for water, food, or mates, the painted turtles travel up to several kilometers at a time. During summer, in response to heat and water-clogging vegetation, the turtles may vacate shallow marshes for more permanent waters. Short overland migrations may involve hundreds of turtles together. If heat and drought are prolonged, the turtles will bury themselves and, in extreme cases, die. Foraging turtles frequently cross lakes or travel linearly down creeks. Daily crossings of large ponds have been observed. Tag and release studies show that sex also drives turtle movement. Males travel the most, up to , between captures; females the second most, up to , between captures; and juveniles the least, less than , between captures.
Painted turtle | Movement
Northern map turtles breed in the spring and fall. Most mating takes place in deep waters. The nesting period lasts from May to July. Unshaded sites with sandy soil are highly preferred. The female usually chooses well-drained areas for depositing the eggs. The nest cavity is dug with the hind feet. The size of the clutch is between six and 20. The eggs are oval, about long, and have a flexible shell. After the eggs are laid, the cavity is filled. They hatch after 50 to 70 days of incubation, and most hatchlings emerge in August to September. When a nest hatches late, the northern map turtle hatchlings have been known to overwinter in the nest.
Northern map turtle | Reproduction
The eggs incubate from 110 to 175 days (incubation periods depend on the month the clutch was produced, with eggs laid early in the cool season requiring longer incubation periods than eggs laid at the end of the cool season when the majority of their incubation will occur at the start of the hot season). After hatching, the young hatchlings remain in the nest for a few weeks before emerging out a small hole adjacent to the nest cap. Usually the temperature of the nest influences on the sex of the hatchling. Warm temperatures would yield more females while colder temperatures would yield more males.
Giant tortoise | Life cycle
The female lays about 40 eggs. The male fans fresh water on top of the eggs until the babies hatch. This takes about 6–7 days.
Sturisomatichthys leightoni | Reproduction
Their overall activity when it comes to mating or laying eggs is completely correlated to the air temperature and not the precipitation. Male desert box turtles are normally sexually mature by the time they are 8–9 years of age, but in captivity have been known to breed as young at the age 2. Females normally require 10–11 years to reach sexual maturity and their breeding season lasts between March and May, and nesting sites will be chosen from May to July. Males will be sexually active from the time they emerge from hibernation until September or October. Males often fight aggressively with other males over females when looking for a mate.
Desert box turtle | Reproduction
imbricata" normally contain around 140 eggs. After the hours-long process, the female returns to the sea. Their nests can be found throughout beaches in about 60 countries. The baby turtles, usually weighing less than hatch at night after around two months. These newly emergent hatchlings are dark-colored, with heart-shaped carapaces measuring around long. They instinctively crawl into the sea, attracted by the reflection of the moon on the water (possibly disrupted by light sources such as street lamps and lights). While they emerge under the cover of darkness, baby turtles that do not reach the water by daybreak are preyed upon by shorebirds, shore crabs, and other predators.
Hawksbill sea turtle | Breeding
Oviposition occurs in April and May, with all eggs ready for deposition by the female being laid. The eggs hatch in the late spring and summer. There have been some discrepancies about how long it takes for the eggs to hatch. Both males and females reach sexual maturation after two years. Harrison (1967) found that eggs hatched in 43–45 days, but Marks and Collazo found 68–75 days. This may be due to different incubation temperatures, but the difference has not been fully explored.
Seepage salamander | Life history
The eggs take about 42 hours to hatch at 25°C and about 30 hours at 30°C. The average time for development through several nauplia larval stages is 22 days for females and 18 for males.
Mesocyclops longisetus | Life cycle
The eggs are buried in a cavity under the leaf litter and take about six weeks to hatch. The juvenile snails that emerge are about long and grow slowly.
Hedleyella falconeri | Biology
Males reach sexual maturity in three to four years. Females do not reach maturity until about 14 years old. Sperm may be stored in females due to sperm being present in males throughout the year and mating only occurring in autumn. Courtship sequence is similar to other species of aquatic emydines, except males use their snouts as the "titillation tools" rather than extended fore claws. Mature adult males lack fore claws altogether. Females lay an average of 29 eggs per season depending on size of female, with an average of four clutches laid per season per female. Nests are located 1–20 m from water’s edge, primarily on exposed sandbars Other "Graptemys" species nest up to 200 m from water’s edge.
Alabama map turtle | Reproduction
Nesting starts near the end of the wet season, in April–May, and hatchlings probably emerge between December and March. Clutch size ranges from 4-8 white, rounded (28-32.5 x 25.8–31 mm; 11-20 g), hard-shelled eggs (Cintra and Yamashita, 1989). Incubation takes over six months; hatchlings (about 3.8 mm) have orange-red spots on carapace, plastron, and sides of the neck. Snails form a large part of this turtle's diet.
Big-headed pantanal swamp turtle | Natural history
"Myuchelys latisternum" reaches sexual maturity at an SCL of 125–135 mm in males and 182–189 mm in females. Courtship behaviors continue throughout the year but mating is observed during mid January. There is no indication of large congregates of nesting sites, but instead, they are seen in ones or twos at dispersed localities along the watercourse. Nest have been seen in soil as far as 100 m from the water. The females nest from September to December. They can have three to four clutches in one season of 9 to 20 eggs which hatch before winter in about 60 days, with the incubation period shortened in southern regions.
Saw-shelled turtle | Reproduction and nesting
Their nesting is done on the ground, and they create their nests so that they will be hidden among rocks, roots, or tufts of grass on steeply sloping ground. Their nests are large and shallow, constructed of strips of bark, plant fibers, leaves, and grass. The female will lay 3 or 4 white to cream-colored eggs that are speckled with fine brown and reddish spots. Incubation lasts about 14 days, but other nesting details are largely unknown. The young painted whitestart has a deep yellow-orange mouth lining.
Painted whitestart | Breeding
The eggs hatch after an incubation period of 12 or 13 days, and the young are able to fly within two weeks of hatching.
Little buttonquail | Reproduction and nesting
Although its evolutionary history—what the forerunner to the species was and how the close relatives branched off—is not well understood, the painted turtle is common in the fossil record. The oldest samples, found in Nebraska, date to about 15 million years ago. Fossils from 15 million to about 5 million years ago are restricted to the Nebraska-Kansas area, but more recent fossils are gradually more widely distributed. Fossils newer than 300,000 years old are found in almost all the United States and southern Canada.
Painted turtle | Fossils
Hatchlings are usually less than one inch long and have a very ridged shell which will become less pronounced as they age and will eventually be completely smooth and domed. Its lifespan, as with most turtles, is quite long, with specimens in captivity being recorded at 50+ years of age.
Sternotherus odoratus | Reproduction
Hatchlings from eggs in the middle of the clutch tend to be the largest, grow the fastest, and be the most active during the first few days of sea life. After incubating for around 80 days, hatchlings dig through the sand to the surface, usually at night, when darkness increases the chance of escaping predation and damage from extreme sand surface temperatures is reduced. Hatchlings enter the ocean by navigating toward the brighter horizon created by the reflection of the moon and starlight off the water's surface. Hatchlings can lose up to 20% of their body mass due to evaporation of water as they journey from nest to ocean.
Loggerhead sea turtle | Early life
While males consistently reach sexual maturity at small sizes, that size is larger and more variable in females. Some may reach maturity at a plastron length of 24 cm, and others may not mature until they reach a length closer to 30 cm. The onset of sexual maturity will occur anywhere from 5 – 8 years of age. The female nesting season can range anywhere from early April to early August, and incubation lasts an average of 60 – 90 days. In a study examining female reproduction, almost 10% of the females examined in a single breeding season showed signs of inactive ovaries, implying that, unlike males, females may not possess the ability to reproduce every year.
Florida softshell turtle | Females
It takes decades for sea turtles to reach sexual maturity. Mature sea turtles may migrate thousands of miles to reach breeding sites. After mating at sea, adult female sea turtles return to land to lay their eggs. Different species of sea turtles exhibit various levels of philopatry. In the extreme case, females return to the same beach where they hatched. This can take place every two to four years in maturity. The mature nesting female hauls herself onto the beach, nearly always at night, and finds suitable sand in which to create a nest. Using her hind flippers, she digs a circular hole deep.
Sea turtle | Life cycle
"Nilssonia nigricans" are oviparous organisms, in which they reproduce by laying their young as eggs to be hatched. Softshell turtles are known to mature slowly with the males prepared to breed in their fourth year. The female population could take up to seven to nine years to mature. A group of eggs is known as a clutch and a female black soft shelled turtle can lay anywhere between 10-38 eggs in her clutch. The baby turtles will grow in their eggs for 92-108 days before hatching. Recently the hatching rate for this specific species has been decreasing due to these species being endangered.
Black softshell turtle | Reproduction
Arizona allows taking four per year with a hunting license. Some localities completely protect the painted turtles. Oregon, where its western painted turtle populations are under pressure, forbids taking of any kind. Missouri forbids the taking of either subspecies (western or southern) present there. Also, in Canada, Ontario and British Columbia restrict any taking of painted turtles.
Capture of painted turtles | Recreational harvesting
The nesting season of "T. emolli" ranges from about the month of December to May. Females can lay several clutches per season with up to thirty-five eggs per clutch. The hatchlings emerge about 69 to 123 days after the eggs have been deposited.
Nicaraguan slider | Breeding
The Painted Turtle was founded in 1999 by Paul Newman and Page and Lou Adler. The camp was conceptualized by Adler and soon was able to get Newman to sponsor it as a part of his Hole in the Wall Gang Camps. The camp got its name from the painted turtle, a widespread species found in most of the United States (but not native to California). Adler says, "It's an animal that has a tough exterior and a soft interior, very much like these kids that we're serving." The camp opened its doors in the Fall of 2003. The camp suffered damage during the Power House Fire in 2013.
The Painted Turtle | History
Most species of tortoises lay small clutch sizes, seldom exceeding 20 eggs, and many species have clutch sizes of only 1–2 eggs. Incubation is characteristically long in most species, the average incubation period are between 100 and 160 days. Egg-laying typically occurs at night, after which the mother tortoise covers her clutch with sand, soil, and organic material. The eggs are left unattended, and depending on the species, take from 60 to 120 days to incubate. The size of the egg depends on the size of the mother and can be estimated by examining the width of the cloacal opening between the carapace and plastron.
Tortoise | Lifecycle
Intercourse lasts between 22 and 33 minutes. Actual copulation takes place in the water, between depths between . Although unusual, copulation does occur on land. During the two prominent times of mating (spring and fall), females are mounted anywhere from one to eight times, with several of these causing impregnation. For this reason, a number of wood turtle clutches have been found to have hatchlings from more than one male. Nesting occurs from May until July. Nesting areas receive ample sunlight, contain soft soil, are free from flooding, and are devoid of rocks and disruptively large vegetation. These sites however, can be limited among wood turtle colonies, forcing females to travel long distances in search of a suitable site, sometimes a trip.
Wood turtle | Life cycle
Young animals emerge from the nest after four to eight months and may weigh only and measure . When the young tortoises emerge from their shells, they must dig their way to the surface, which can take several weeks, though their yolk sac can sustain them up to seven months. In particularly dry conditions, the hatchlings may die underground if they are encased by hardened soil, while flooding of the nest area can drown them. Species are initially indistinguishable as they all have domed carapaces. The young stay in warmer lowland areas for their first 10–15 years, encountering hazards such as falling into cracks, being crushed by falling rocks, or excessive heat stress.
Galápagos tortoise | Early life and maturation
Reproductive behaviors among the different species of sea turtles are similar, with slight differences in each of the species. The females come to shore and bury their clutch of eggs on beaches or sandy environments typically at night and well away from the high tide line of the shore. Most females nest only once every three to four years and most species have two to four egg laying time periods per nesting season, which is from spring to late fall. A common number of eggs laid in a nest is often about 100 eggs per clutch. The incubation period of some turtles can range anywhere from 50 to 60 days.
Cheloniidae | Reproduction and life cycle
As with most reptiles, "L. splendida" lays eggs. Courtship and copulation occurs between the months of March and June, with clutches of 5 to 12 adhesive-surfaced eggs deposited in late June or July, sometimes buried as deeply as a foot to prevent drying through their moisture-permeable shells. After about 60 days of incubation the 8- to 10-inch long hatchlings, weighing about a fifth of an ounce, emerge. Brightly yellow-speckled in vertebral cross-lines, they also exhibit a lateral row of large, dark brown spots which, as they mature, are gradually fragmented by encroaching yellow flecks.
Desert kingsnake | Reproduction
Females grow to 7 cm long and males to 6 cm long. The colours include: brown and bronze orange, with slight shining. The eggs take 2–3 months to hatch.
Sceptrophasma hispidulum | Description
Originally described in 1783 by Johann Gottlob Schneider as "Testudo picta", the painted turtle was called "Chrysemys picta" first by John Edward Gray in 1855. The four subspecies were then recognized: the eastern by Schneider in 1783, the western by Gray in 1831, and the midland and southern by Louis Agassiz in 1857. Until the 1930s many of the subspecies of the painted turtle were labeled by biologists as full species within "Chrysemys", but this varied by the researcher. The painted turtles in the border region between the western and midland subspecies were sometimes considered a full species, "treleasei". In 1931, Bishop and Schmidt defined the current "four in one" taxonomy of species and subspecies.
Painted turtle | Classification
Female sea turtles create nests to lay their eggs by digging a pit on the beach, typically between the high tide line and dune, using their rear flippers. Consequently, within the first seven days of hatching, hatchling sea turtles must make the journey from the nest back into the ocean. This trip occurs predominantly at night in order to avoid predators and overheating. In order to orient themselves towards the ocean, the hatchlings depend on their eyes to turn towards the brightest direction. This is because the open horizon of the ocean, illuminated by celestial light, tends to be much brighter in a natural undeveloped beach than the dunes and vegetation.
Evolutionary mismatch | Sea turtles and light pollution
"P. carteri" reaches sexual maturity in roughly 10 months. Adult females lay 1–2 hard shelled eggs that are incubated at 28 °C (82.4 °F) for 70–90 days. Each neonate hatches out at a total length of about .
Pristurus carteri | Reproduction
The eastern painted turtle ranges from southeastern Canada to Georgia with a western boundary at approximately the Appalachians. At its northern extremes, the turtle tends to be restricted to the warmer areas closer to the Atlantic Ocean. It is uncommon in far north New Hampshire and in Maine is common only in a strip about 50 miles from the coast. In Canada, it lives in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia but not in Quebec or Prince Edward Island. To the south it is not found in the coastal lowlands of southern North Carolina, South Carolina, or Georgia, or in southern Georgia in general or at all in Florida.
Painted turtle | Eastern painted turtle
Adult females lay eggs in March and April. The eggs are long by wide. Clutch size varies from 11 to 30 eggs.
Red-crowned roofed turtle | Reproduction
Its skin is olive to black with red, orange, or yellow stripes on its extremities. The subspecies can be distinguished by their shells: the eastern has straight-aligned top shell segments; the midland has a large gray mark on the bottom shell; the southern has a red line on the top shell; the western has a red pattern on the bottom shell. The turtle eats aquatic vegetation, algae, and small water creatures including insects, crustaceans, and 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.
Painted turtle | Introduction
"Baby Turtles," an eight-page short story, was published in "Dark Horse Presents" #3 in Oct. 2014. It features the journey of baby turtles to the seas of Cretaceous North America. The story begins with a large group of Archelon turtles hatching in a nesting ground and beginning a trek towards the sea. An overhead shot shows that there are hundreds of these small turtles...which unfortunately attracts huge numbers of predators. Pterosaurs, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, sharks, Xiphactinus fish and all sorts of other predators lie in wait, attacking the column of baby Archelon as they make their way down the coastline and into the water.
Age of Reptiles (comics) | Baby Turtles
They will trail after females for quite some distance, often ramming them into submission. When mating, the male makes grunting vocalizations. Nesting occurs between May and October when the female digs a hole and lays a clutch of 5 to 30 eggs. As many as 5–7 clutches may be laid in a single season. Incubation will take 8–15 months depending on temperature. There are numerous predators of the eggs and hatchlings including monitor lizards, snakes, jackals and crows. Adults have few natural predators but lions and hyenas have occasionally been reported preying on them.
Leopard tortoise | Ecology and behavior
They attain a 5-month dormancy until they emerge and become active again.
Desert box turtle | Hibernation
Eggs hatch between 90 and 100 days.
Paroedura lohatsara | In captivity
The Painted Turtle is a Summer camp located near Lake Elizabeth in Lake Hughes, California. The camp is for children who are faced with life-threatening and chronic illnesses. Many of these children would not have the opportunity to have a camping experience due to their illness. The year-round programming for campers and their families is provided free of charge.
The Painted Turtle | Introduction