Blanding's Turtle
State-listed as endangered in Missouri and Indiana; threatened in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin; and a species of special concern in Michigan and Ohio - the Blanding's Turtle has been sighted in the Busseron Creek Watershed.
Blanding's
Turtle
(Emydoidea blandingii)
Named after its discoverer, the Blanding's turtle is medium-sized and can be easily identified by the bright yellow underside of its neck. Its head, tail, and limbs are blue-black, while the underside of its shell (or plastron) is yellow, with brown or black splotches, and is hinged. Its upper shell (or carapace) is usually black speckled with yellow, or horn colored and mottled with brown. Males are larger than females, have longer tails, and their plastrons are concave for mating.
Range
The range of the Blanding’s Turtle is concentrated in the Great Lakes region and extends from southern Ontario west including Michigan, Wisconsin, northern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, southern Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. There have also been isolated records from southeast South Dakota and northwest Missouri. Disjunct populations can be found in New York, Nova Scotia and from southern Maine to Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts
Diet
Blanding's is one of the very few turtles that are semi-aquatic, meaning they can swallow food both in and out of water. Crayfish, insects, snails, frogs and fish make up their water-based diet. On land, the turtles dine on earthworms, slugs, grasses, berries and succulent vegetation.
Habitat
These turtles prefer to inhabit slow-moving or still, shallow waters with ample vegetation in which to hide. They burrow into the silty bottoms of these wetlands to hibernate for winter. Most of the turtle's aquatic habitat are near forested areas. Gravid (pregnant) female Blanding's Turtles will follow streams through forests to nesting areas.
Life Cycle
Blanding's Turtles require 15-20 years to mature. Mating usually occurs in the water during early spring. After fertilization, females will bask in the sun with their heads and legs fully extended in order to speed development of their eggs. This provides more time for hatchling growth before autumn frost and subsequent hibernation, giving the young a greater chance of surviving the winter.
Like
all turtles, the Blanding's must lay their eggs on land and prefer a patch of
sandy ground for nesting. They will travel up to one and a half miles from water
to nest, and they usually return to the same nesting site each year. Once they
deposit the eggs in the ground, the mothers return to the water, and the sun's
warmth is used to incubate the nested eggs. The clutch may contain from 3 to 17
eggs which will hatch in 65 and 90 days. During the first 24 hours of
incubation, many eggs are lost to predation by crows, skunks and raccoons.
Hatchlings are about one and a quarter inches long and range from dark gray to greenish in color. Little is known about the habits of the young. They appear to be very secretive, foraging exclusively in aquatic habitats which are densely vegetated. Once they are about 6 inches long they can be seen basking and foraging more easily and often.
Blanding's may live up to 60 years.