{"id":9886,"date":"2012-03-16T20:57:26","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T01:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=9886"},"modified":"2012-03-16T20:57:26","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T01:57:26","slug":"the-adorable-couple-spotted-turtles-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=9886","title":{"rendered":"The Adorable Couple: Spotted Turtles Emerge"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Adorable Couple: Basking Spotted Turtles<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Turtle Journal discovered this lovely pair of spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata<\/em>) on March 14th.\u00c2\u00a0 The male turtle #2003\u00c2\u00a0on the left and the female turtle #13\u00c2\u00a0on the right were basking in the filtered sunshine on\u00c2\u00a0a mossy bank of the small pond at Brainard Marsh\u00c2\u00a0in Marion.\u00c2\u00a0 As early as March 8th, Sue Wieber Nourse had glimpsed this couple lazing along the edge of the pond, yet they were so entangled in muck and debris that they were impossible to capture.\u00c2\u00a0 Basking on the land today, however, they afforded Sue just the chance she needed to snare them in our long-handle sampling net.<\/p>\n

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Examining the Female Spotted Turtle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Back at Turtle Journal Central, we closely examined the female turtle that we had first encountered in the pouring rain on March 29th, 2010.\u00c2\u00a0 (See Spotted Turtles Lovin’ in the Rain<\/a>.)\u00c2\u00a0 We wanted to see how she had come through brumation during this record warm winter.\u00c2\u00a0 We also wanted to re-examine the bump on the right side of her vertebral.\u00c2\u00a0 As demonstrated in this examination, she exhibits gorgeous coral orange female coloration on her neck and chin.<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle Weighs 218 Grams<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Female spotted turtle #13 weighed in at 218 grams, surprisingly light compared to her smaller and more compact male companion that tipped the scales at 211 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 We speculate that her larger, more hollow frame will accommodate the need\u00c2\u00a0for egg development, which should begin next month.<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle Carapace Anomalies<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Spotted turtle #13 has easily recognizable scutal anomalies on her carapace.\u00c2\u00a0 She sports seven rather than five vertebral scutes and five rather than four right costal scutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Her prominent bump on the right side of her penultimate vertebral scute showed no change from two years ago.<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle – Male Spotted Turtle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Having the adorable couple, female #13 (left) and male #2003 (right), together presented an excellent opportunity to illustrate gender differences among spotted turtles.\u00c2\u00a0 As you can see from the picture above, female #13 has washboard flat “abs” on her plastron, while male #2003 shows the typical male concavity in the center posterior of his plastron.\u00c2\u00a0 For those like us who enjoy tracing the history of these charismatic critters, male #2003 was first observed on March 18th, 2011.\u00c2\u00a0 (See First Spotted Turtle of 2011<\/a>.)\u00c2\u00a0 His measurements and weight today\u00c2\u00a0were identical to those recorded last year.<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted Turtle — Male Spotted Turtle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two other gender differences are illustrated, at least partially, in the image above.\u00c2\u00a0 Female #13 is on the left.\u00c2\u00a0 She shows the beautiful, bright female coral orange coloration at the bottom of her chin and on her neck.\u00c2\u00a0 Although male #2003 was too shy to show his head for the picture on the right, he had a drab male grayish color on his chin and neck.\u00c2\u00a0 Easier to distinguish above, female #13 has a thin tail with\u00c2\u00a0the anal\u00c2\u00a0vent\u00c2\u00a0inside the length of\u00c2\u00a0her carapace.\u00c2\u00a0 Male #2003 sports a large, thick tail with\u00c2\u00a0the anal\u00c2\u00a0vent outside the length of his carapace.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Female Spotted #13 Leads Male Spotted #2003 Back to Pond<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After a short diversion with the Turtle Journal team for a quick checkup and a chance to add to our knowledge of these exquisite, yet elusive critters, the adorable couple were released back at the exact spot along the banks of the Brainard Marsh pond.\u00c2\u00a0 The temperature had dropped into the very low 40s, enough to make any sane thinking turtle a bit sluggish.\u00c2\u00a0 As soon as female #13 got her bearings, she stomped off to the pond, struggled out about 20 feet toward the center and submerged into the oozy bottom.\u00c2\u00a0 Male #2003 stubbornly clung to his perch on the mossy patch until he was sure that his female companion had safely tested the waters.\u00c2\u00a0 He then slid down the bank with a thud and immediately dove into the shoreline muck and debris.\u00c2\u00a0 Turtle Journal salutes the adorable couple and thanks them for their mid March visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Adorable Couple: Basking Spotted Turtles Turtle Journal discovered this lovely pair of spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata) on March 14th.\u00c2\u00a0 The male turtle #2003\u00c2\u00a0on the left and the female turtle #13\u00c2\u00a0on the right were basking in the filtered sunshine on\u00c2\u00a0a mossy bank of the small pond at Brainard Marsh\u00c2\u00a0in Marion.\u00c2\u00a0 As early as March 8th, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9886"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9918,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886\/revisions\/9918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}