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Length: 3 ½ - 4 ½ inches. The record length is 5 inches.

 

Lifespan: Reaching sexual maturity at 10 to 15 years of age, Spotted Turtles have been recorded to live for more than 40 years.

 

Range: South Eastern Maine west to Northeastern Illinois and south along the Eastern Seaboard to Central Florida. There are also isolated populations in Quebec, Southern Ontario, Central Illinois, and Southwestern North Carolina and adjacent South Carolina.

 

Habitat: In spring Spotted Turtles can be found in vernal ponds where they presumably go to feed on salamander and frog eggs. After the vernal ponds dry up they move to wet meadows, forested swamps or sphagnum bogs, where they remain to winter over. They favor clear shallow water with a muddy substrate. Locally they are most often seen in early spring in the upper, fresh water parts, of streams that drain into salt-water bays. Accabonac Harbor, Napeague Bay, and Northwest Creek all have streams with extent populations of this handsome turtle.

Food: Diet consists of a wide variety of invertebrates including, snails, slugs, worms, small crustaceans, aquatic insects, and as previously mentioned, salamander and frog eggs. They also eat tadpoles and salamander larvae as well as some plant matter.

Reproduction: Mating takes place in spring and gravid females lay eggs in early June. The eggs are deposited in a hole dug by the female in a sunny location with loamy soil, sphagnum moss, grass, or in a sedge tussock. The eggs hatch in seven to twelve weeks depending the temperature of the nest. In August or September the newly hatched young emerge, or in the case of a late nest they may over winter in the ground and emerge from the nest in April.

Hibernation: In fall the turtles move to underwater areas where temperatures remain stable and slightly above freezing. Spotted Turtles typically spend the winter in groups, hibernating at the same site year after year. Occasionally other species of turtles, like Snapping Turtles, will also winter over together with the Spotted Turtles. Because the Spotted Turtle is declining throughout its range in New York State the state department of environmental conservation has listed it as a species of special concern.