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Turtles at Black Rock Forest

Painted Turtle Image

Image of Matt Munson holding a painted turtle.

Painted Turtles

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Record Type: Forest Story

People: Christopher Raxworthy, William Schuster

Description: Black Rock Forest is home to a variety of aquatic and terrestrial turtles. Years of study of aquatic painted and snapping turtles have produced much information pertaining to behavior, population size, sex ratio, and age structure. Turtles with electronic tags can be sampled with basking and baited hoop traps. Students can then scan them for tags and weigh, measure, and identify the sex of the turtles. In the classroom, students can examine historical turtle data and then use their own data to estimate population size (mark-recapture) and other parameters.

Aleck Meadow Pond has become a home to many turtles, mostly painted turtles (Chrysemys picta). The best way to identify them is the yellow under shell and the red marks on the edge of the upper shell. If you are quiet and observant you may see them basking on the rocks. Since they like to gather together you may see more than one. An on-going turtle study at Black Rock is being conducted to understand turtle populations and how they are affected by different levels of acidity in the water. Turtles are trapped in nets, identified as male or female, marked, and weighed in many of the ponds in Black Rock Forest. Using this data, the researchers are able to determine the size of the population, the sex ratio, and the age structure of the turtles in each pond. Aleck Meadow has more turtles than other ponds at higher elevations. This difference in populations is thought to be due to pH levels.

Painted turtles sleep on the bottom of the pond at night and emerge in the mornings and afternoons to forage for food and bask in the sun. The painted turtle eats aquatic plants, insects and other small animals.

See and hear about Black Rock Forest's Painted Turtle population studies from Bill Schuster, Forest Director by clicking the video link below.


Keyword: Animals, Mammals, Reptiles