Species Fact Profile: Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii)

                                                         Blanding's Turtle

                                           Emydoidea blandingii (Holbrook, 1838)

Range: Northeastern/Nort Central United States, Southern Canada

Habitat: Wetlands (preference for clear, shallow water with plentiful vegetation)

Diet: Crustaceans, Fish, Frogs, Carrion, Berries, and Vegetation

Social Grouping: Asocial

Reproduction: 1-2 clutches of 8-15 eggs (range 3-22, varying across range) in a year, females usually reproducing every other year.  Usually nest in sunny areas with well-drained soil.  Incubation period 82-96 (range 65-128, again varying across range) days.  Hatchlings about 3.3 centimeters at hatching.  Sexually mature at 12-20 years based on size, with males maturing earlier than females.

Lifespan: 80 Years

      Conservation Status: IUCN Endangered, CITES Appendix II

• Males have a carapace length of 28 centimeters, females up to 22 centimeters.  Carapace is domed but slightly flattened along the midline, appears oblong from above.  Plastron is hinged, but does not close up tightly, sometimes called “semi-box” turtle
• Carapace is dark with numerous yellow or white streaks, while the plastron is yellow with symmetrical dark blotches.  The exposed skin is dark green-brown with some light speckling and a characteristic bright yellow chin and throat.
• Overwinter under or near the water, either buried in the mud or in vegetation and debris.  During the nesting system, females may travel up to 1 kilometer from the water to lay
• Predators include raccoons and foxes.  The turtles leave strong scent trails, which makes them more vulnerable to tracking by predators
• ·Only member of the genus Emydoidea, but sometimes placed in Emys with the European pond turtle and Sicilian pond turtle, rather than North American species.  Species name honors American naturalist Dr. William Blanding (1773-1857).
• Declining due to a variety of factors, including loss of habitat and fragmentation, mortality from roads (especially a problem for females on their way to lay), and increased predation of eggs and hatchlings by artificially-elevated populations of raccoons and other meso-predators.
•  Not widely sought after in trade, but even occasional collection for consumption or export can further reduce populations.  Often caught as bycatch during snapping turtle fishing.  Sometimes captured for sale on pet trade, with gravid females, being away from the water and exposed, being the most vulnerable to capture
• Raymond Ditmars described the species as very common in parts of the US when he wrote his Reptiles of the World and found it “erratic in habits” – noted that some species seemed to be primarily aquatic, others were primarily terrestrial (perhaps males vs females, seasonally?)
• Several US facilities – including Brookfield, Cosley, Shedd Aquarium, and Toronto – work with government agencies on a head-start program to collect gravid females, collect their eggs and raise them in safe conditions, and release them back to the wild years later (this supplementing the SSP breeding program).  Released turtles have been found years later, indicating their survival and the success of the program