A Painted Turtle

Painted turtles are found in lakes and ponds throughout Montana.  A couple days ago, I found one sunning on a rock near my dock on the lake.  Painted turtles are not particularly common in Hauser Lake.  I was surprised to see it.

Painted turtles are omnivores.  They eat plants and most any living thing they can catch.  Turtles lucky enough to catch a lot of insects, fish, or other living matter grow much faster than those surviving on a diet of plants. The one I saw will likely not start eating again until the warmer days of early summer.

Painted turtles live slow and deliberate lives.  They never cause a ruckus.  They are not in a hurry.

Painted turtles engage in springtime courtships.  The females then lay eggs in nests buried along the water’s edge (sometimes at a distance from the water).  The heat of the sun incubates the eggs for two or three months.  Interestingly, the sex of the turtles in the nest is determined by the surrounding soil temperatures.  Warmer temperatures produce females.  Males emerge from cooler nests.  Even this stage of life progresses at a slow pace.  After hatching in their nest, most hatchlings may remain in the nest until the following spring.

I am more than happy to welcome a quiet painted turtle as my neighbor.  Easier to tolerate than the boom-box wake boats that have appeared on the lake in recent years.

Posted today is a photograph of the turtle I saw.  I leaned out and snapped a photograph of the turtle with my smarter-than-me phone.  As you can see, the turtle was basted in mud, having only recently emerged from overwintering at the muddy lake bottom.

--Mitchell Hegman

Source: John Ashley, Wild and Free In Montana