Identification: Western painted turtles are larger than their midland counterparts, growing up to 25.4cm (10 inches). Western painted turtles have yellow and charcoal streaks on their head, neck and front limbs unlike other subspecies that are predominately red. The underside of the marginal scutes, the smaller segments along the outside of the edge of the shell, are red to orange while the plastron, underside of the shell, is a similar colour with dark markings around the centre line and protrude outwards. In Ontario, these turtles can also be identified by range as they are found in extreme western Ontario around the Manitoba boarder, where midland painted turtles do not inhabit. They range as far west as British Columbia but are considered rare.
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Overwintering: Snow still persisted on the banks of the pond but that did not stop the turtles from coming out to make the most of the early spring weather. In winter, turtles like the painted turtle will remain under the ice, in the water and buried in up to 0.95m (3.1ft) of sediment where it can be as cold as 3°C (37.4°F), just warm enough not to freeze. Here, turtles are awake, and if they get enough oxygen, they can be observed moving under the ice. In anaerobic environments however, without oxygen to breath, their movements and metabolism slow down further, by up to ~95%. Without access to the surface, these turtles are still able to breath, as blood vessels in the turtle’s cloaca are close to the surface of the skin and act much like a fish’s gills, absorbing dissolved oxygen directly from the water. Their ability to tolerate cold environments has allowed painted turtles to colonize areas as far north as Manitoba, Quebec City and Thunder Bay in Ontario, where the average minimum temperatures can reach -20°C (-4°F) come January.
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Sources:
Stebbins, Robert C., and Samuel M. McGinnis. Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. New York, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2018, pp. 206-07. Ultsch, Gordan R., et al. "The Physiology of Hibernation among Painted Turtles: The Eastern Painted Turtle Chrysemys picta picta." The University of Chicago Press Journals, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 1999, www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/316687. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021. "Western Painted Turtle." Ontario Nature, 2021, ontarionature.org/programs/community-science/reptile-amphibian-atlas/western-painted-turtle/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021. "Winter Slumber." Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, 29 Jan. 2009, ontarioturtle.ca/2009/01/winter-slumber/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021. |