Reptile & Amphibian Forums

any ideas on this little beauty? notice the shell is very rough and keeled and absolutely spotless, unlike the very smooth, domed and many spotted shell of a spotted turtle. however, the head is very much like a spotted turtle. while it doesn't have the perfectly circular spots, it does have numerous orange flecks like i've seen in other spotteds. the typical orange blotches on the sides of the head, which typify a bog turtle are either absent or greatly reduced. any ideas???

here is the next picture

and the final, of the rough and keeled shell

Was this spotter wild caught???

very interesting.

do you have better larger pics?

i can understand if you don't wnat to discuss the origin of this turtle but it might be smart to consider where is was found.
much of the bog spotted range overlaps, but not all.
of course if this turtle was give or sold to you and it origins unknown, then you may want to resort to other methods.

this turtle was found in northeastern Maryland in the typcial bog/spotted turtle habitat. tussock marsh beside free-flowing creek. in the area i found this turtle, i also found 5 spotted turtles. so that was my first hunch as to its identity. it is very different from even the spotteds found a few feet from it. does anyone know if spotted lose their spots with age? and if/as they do, do the scutes on the carapace build and show rings, much like on other turtles, including bogs? i've never seen a spotted turtle with anything other than perfectly smooth domed, spotted carpaces. this is very different,leading me to suspect a hybrid or some sort of genetic birth defect.

here may be the most telling example of what i was trying to convey - the carapaces side by side of two turtles found in the same location. the one on the left is obviously a spotted. the one on the right is significantly smaller, has been more secretive and reluctant to come out of its shell and has no spots and a very differently textured carapace. your thoughts??

here is another shot of the turtle as it heads for water. as you can see, the head is very much like a spotted turtle, but not the carapace. at least not in my experience

the gal is kinda cute when she finally decides to peek out of her shell. i've been told she's a spotted and she was found with spotteds, but her carapace adn other features may indicate something else.

Actually, she looks A LOT like another female that was turned into a rehabber in MD. Same lumpy shell without spots. I'll see if I can find out where it was found. Supposedly found on the edge of a road, but don't know where. It seemed to have some sort of head trauma, despite the lack of obvious injury, because it wouldn't move much, wouldn't open it's eyes without prompting, always seemed half asleep (like a very sick turtle) and wouldn't eat on its own, but would fight like hell (quite strong) when tube fed. I don't know the eventual outcome, but I'll see if I can dredge up a picture.

Katrina

This is the one that was at a MD rehab, just don't know the found location.

Katrina

What's the origin of this specimen? That would help in the determination.

Did you keep those five you saw that day. I hope you are returning them to were you found them. Keeping five spotters is not good for an already struggling population.

no, i certainly didn't keep the turtles i found. in fact, i only brought this strange turtle home to take photos and try and get a positive ID on the critter. the verdict still seems to be out on whether this gal is a spotted, bog or some variant. anybody else with any suggestions?

So i did some investigating and it seems those insculpted spotteds are not as rare as i had thought.
i have now seen pictures of 11 different specimens which are knwon to be pure guttata.
So i'd guess this one is just a spotted turtle.

It is a definite spotted turtle. Bog/Spotted hybrids actually look much much different than that girl you have. They to an extent resemble wood turtles a bit. That is just a lumpy, not-so-colorful spotted, yet still a wonderful animal.