Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is one for the turtle scientists. We live on a retention pond in West Central Florida. The past week we witnessed two separate turtles on the bank in our yard in tne process of laying eggs. We generally find a lot of baby turtles (Florida Cooters or Yellow Belly Sliders) around the yard in late August or early September. We keep a few to grow up a little before releasing them. The weather has been somewhat mild so far, but we have had a couple of nights in the 30s and the temps are expected to drop back down in a couple of days. Do these turtles generally lay eggsin December? I thought the eggs need heat! What will happen to the eggs if the temps dip back into the 30s again at night? Should I do anything? Thanks. Bob

I'm surprised nobody has answerd this. I am no authority on Florida turtles but its well known that P floridana nests all year and certainly P melsoni is active in every month even as far north as central florida. As for T scripta scripta i think winter nesting may be a bit unusual. I think what you have seen is not very rare but maybe not very common. Some eggs overwinter in the nest if its not particularly cold winter. In some species this is even apppreantly necessary (or at least helpful) for successful hatching. If you want to dig them up and incubate them they'd probbaly have a better chance but i wouldn't be surprised if many survived the winter unless there was a really bad cold snap.
If you are really curious about details try to contact:
Paul Mohler of the Florida Fish & Game Commission
or George Heinrich of Heinrich Ecological Services
they are two individuals who would be very well informed about statistics regarding Florida turtles.

Thanks for the repy. I guess I'll just let them be. Thanks again.