Reptiles
Spotted Turtle
Clemmys guttata · also called spotted turtle
A spotted turtle is a small, glossy black turtle that looks as if someone has flicked a paintbrush of yellow across its shell. It was once one of the commonest turtles of eastern North American wet meadows and bogs. Now it is Endangered — undone by the draining of small wetlands, roads, nest predators, and poachers who smuggle wild adults overseas for the pet trade.
Overview
The spotted turtle, Clemmys guttata, is a small (10–12 cm) semi-aquatic turtle of eastern North America. Its smooth black shell is scattered with round yellow spots — from none to over a hundred — and it has orange and yellow blotches on the head and legs. It feeds only in the water on insects, worms, snails, and tadpoles.
A turtle of small wet places
Spotted turtles live in shallow, clean, still water — fens, wet meadows, bogs, vernal pools, ditches — and often move overland between several through the year. They are most active in cool spring weather, then many go dormant through the hot summer, buried in mud or a muskrat burrow.
Slow lives
A spotted turtle does not breed until 8 to 15 years old, lays only 3 or 4 eggs a year, and often none — but can live 50 years, sometimes past 100. The whole strategy depends on adults surviving for decades.
Status
Endangered and declining across its range. Small wetlands are drained and fragmented, roads kill nesting females, raccoons take most nests, and poaching of wild adults for the international pet trade has become one of the largest threats. The species is protected by law throughout its range and listed on CITES.
Spotted Turtle: common questions
Why is the spotted turtle endangered?
Several slow-acting pressures have combined. Its habitat, small shallow wetlands like wet meadows, fens, and vernal pools, is exactly the kind of wetland most often drained, filled, or built over, so populations have been reduced to isolated fragments. The turtle matures at 8 to 15 years and lays only three or four eggs a year, so it cannot replace losses quickly. Roads kill nesting females, raccoons and other boosted predators destroy most nests, and, increasingly, poachers take wild adults for the international pet trade. Losing even a few adults a year can send a small population into a decline it never recovers from.
Can you keep a spotted turtle as a pet?
Legally, almost never from the wild. The spotted turtle is protected across essentially its whole range, it is listed on CITES, and taking one from the wild is illegal in most states and provinces and is a serious conservation problem. There is a legal captive-bred trade in some places for people with the right permits, and the species can be kept by dedicated keepers who provide clean shallow water, a basking area, cool temperatures, and a varied diet, but it is a decades-long commitment. Buying one means checking very carefully that it is genuinely captive-bred and legally documented.
How long do spotted turtles live?
A long time. Spotted turtles regularly reach 50 years in the wild, and studies using marked individuals have found turtles still alive and breeding at over 65, with some estimated to be more than 100 years old. Captives have similar potential. This extreme longevity is central to how the species survives, because an adult that produces only a handful of eggs each year, many of which are eaten, needs many decades of breeding to leave even one or two offspring that reach adulthood. It also means that removing or killing an adult wastes all those decades of accumulated reproduction.
What is the difference between a spotted turtle and a bog turtle?
Both are small, dark, rare, semi-aquatic turtles of northeastern wetlands and both are protected, but they are easy to tell apart. A spotted turtle has a smooth black shell scattered with round yellow polka dots. A bog turtle has a rougher, sculptured brown shell with no spots, and its key feature is a bright orange or yellow blotch on each side of the head. Bog turtles are even smaller, are the smallest turtle in North America, and are more strictly tied to spring-fed fens and wet meadows with soft muck, and they are also Critically Endangered.