Range: False map turtles are found primarily in the upper Mississippi River and subsequent tributaries from western Tennessee, north into Minnesota. They are also native to the Missouri River extending from Nebraska to North Dakota. Despite being otherwise endemic to the United States, false map turtles are often introduced well outside of their range due to the pet trade. False map turtles are relatively common in the pet trade and sometimes, when an owner no longer wants their pet turtle, they end up releasing it into nearby waterways. Here, the turtle competes with native turtles before succumbing to temperatures outside of their threshold. False map turtles have been found introduced in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Mexico, western United States and much of Europe.
Sources:
"False Map Turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica)." iNaturalist, 2021, inaturalist.ca/taxa/39847-Graptemys-pseudogeographica. Accessed 16 Nov. 2021. Powell, Robert, et al. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2016, pp. 207-08. |