Species Description

The spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata), the only extant species of the genus Clemmys, is a small, semi-aquatic turtle that reaches a carapace length of 8–12 cm upon adulthood. Their broad, smooth, low dark-colored upper shell, or carapace, ranges in its exact colour from black to a bluish black with a number of tiny yellow round spots. The spotting patterning extends from the head, to the neck and out onto the limbs. Males and females can be distinguished by differences in plastron shape and eye and chin colouration.

Spotted turtles are aquatic omnivores that inhabit a variety of semi-aquatic or in other words, shallow, fresh-water areas such as flooded forests, marshes, wet meadows, bogs and woodland streams in southern Canada (Ontario) and the eastern US: the eastern Great Lakes and east of the Appalachian Mountains.