Reptiles
Musk Turtle
Sternotherus · also called musk turtles, stinkpots
A musk turtle is a small, grumpy, bottom-walking turtle of North American ponds and slow rivers. It swims poorly, so it trudges along the mud instead, hunting snails and insect larvae. Pick one up and two things happen fast: it cranes its long neck around to bite you, and it lets go a cloud of foul musk. The common species is simply called the stinkpot.
Overview
Musk turtles are the genus Sternotherus — about six small species in the eastern and central United States. They live in still or slow water with a soft bottom, and they are poor swimmers that mostly walk the bottom foraging, so they have a high domed shell and little webbing. Older ones specialise on snails and clams, crushed with broad jaws.
Musk, bites, and climbing
The stinkpot name comes from scent glands at the shell edge that release a strong sulphurous musk when the turtle is handled — enough to make a predator drop it. Musk turtles also bite readily, reaching right around to the back of their own shell with a long neck. And despite their squat shape they climb, often basking metres up in overhanging branches and dropping into the water — or a passing canoe — when startled.
Small and old
The common musk turtle reaches only 8–14 cm of shell, but routinely lives 30–50 years, and it can breathe through its skin and throat lining well enough to spend winter buried on the bottom without surfacing.
Status
Least Concern for most species — the common musk turtle is abundant. The flattened musk turtle, confined to one Alabama river system, is Critically Endangered from dams, coal mining, and the loss of its mollusc prey.
Musk Turtle: common questions
Why is it called a stinkpot?
The common musk turtle has a pair of scent glands under the rear edge of its shell, and when it is frightened, grabbed, or roughly handled it squirts out a yellowish secretion with a powerful, lingering musky, sulphurous odour. The smell is unpleasant enough to make a raccoon, heron, or dog spit the turtle out, and it clings to hands and clothing for a long time. Because a startled musk turtle releases it readily, anyone who picks one up usually finds out where the nickname comes from within seconds.
Do musk turtles bite?
Yes, readily. Musk turtles have a long, flexible neck that can reach right around to the back edge of their own shell, and a cornered or handled one will crane around and bite hard, and the larger-headed species such as the loggerhead musk turtle can deliver a genuinely painful nip that may break skin. They are not dangerous, but they are one of the more defensive small turtles and should be picked up, if at all, by the very back of the shell above the tail, well out of neck range.
Are musk turtles good pets?
They are kept by experienced turtle keepers and have some advantages, staying small, remaining fully aquatic, and being active and interesting to watch as they patrol the bottom. But they are not beginner or child pets, since they bite, they musk, they need a properly filtered, heated aquarium with clean water and a basking area, they live for decades, and wild-caught individuals often carry parasites and settle poorly. Captive-bred animals from a reputable source are far better than wild-caught, and in some areas collecting them from the wild is restricted.
What is the difference between a musk turtle and a mud turtle?
They are close relatives in the same family, the Kinosternidae, and both are small, dark, bottom-dwelling turtles of still water in the Americas. The clearest differences are in the underside. A mud turtle has a larger plastron with two hinges, letting it close its shell fairly tightly front and back, while a musk turtle has a small, reduced plastron with at most one weak hinge and cannot close up. Musk turtles also tend to have a taller, more domed shell and, in the common species, two pale stripes on the head, and they are the ones with the strong musk glands.