Blanding's Turtle

 This afternoon while I was out looking for dragonflies after work I came across a Blanding's turtle. Blanding's turtles are a bit larger then the more common painted turtle and easily recognized by their bright yellow chin. They are found primarily in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. Minnesota is on the western edge of their range.

Blanding's turtles are usually found near wetlands such as ponds, swamps, marshes. They will often use ephemeral wetlands during the summer. These fishless wetlands are usually full of aquatic invertebrates and insects which are a main food source for the turtles and the waters of these shallow pools are also usually warmer which aid in the egg development for females. During the winter the turtles move to deeper wetlands that will not freeze all the way to the bottom where they bury themselves in the mud. The peak time that they move to their summer wetlands in Minnesota is in June and July. June is also the month when females leave the water to go lay their eggs. I am not sure if this turtle was looking to nest or just moving to nicer digs but since they are a threatened species here in Minnesota I made sure that it did not stay out in the middle of the road where it might have been hit by someone who was not paying attention or worse yet someone who did not care.

Blanding's Turtle

The Blanding's is a rare turtle that can be found in the Great Lakes region of the United States. While these turtles were once more common through out much of the eastern U.S. they are now limited to several Midwestern states and southeastern Canada. Even in most of these areas the Blanding's turtle is listed as an endangered or threatened species, even though it is not nationally listed in the U.S. In Minnesota they are found in the eastern part of the state and they are listed as a threatened species.
A big part of the problem that Blanding's turtles are facing comes from the fact that it takes them about 12 to 14 years to mature. This makes it difficult for the turtles to make up for any population losses. They make up for this by living up to about 80 years. Unfortunately because much of their habitat has been fragmented, because of people developing the land, their mortality rate has been increasing. Both eggs and young have been affected by increased predation, approximately 93% mortality rate. While adults are frequently hit and killed by cars, especially females who travel away from their wetland homes to look for a sandy location to dig their nest.