The Travels of Tug 44


Eastern Painted Turtle






Eastern Painted Turtles are very common and they love swamps, such as this group ... sound asleep, sunning themselves in an abandoned section of the Old Champlain Canal in Fort Edward. They eat nearly everything including insects, worms, fish, duckweed and water hyacinth. Being reptiles, they must control their body temperature by laying in the sun to get warm.

They have this habit of overlapping their shells like this ... I think the reason is when one turtle spots a predator and slides into the water, the rest of them get a bump, wake up and also dive in.

Painted Turtles can live to be as old as 55 years, even in the wild.   high-res



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