The painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) is a widespread native turtle of North America.
Eastern Painted Turtles
These brightly colored turtles gain their name from colorful markings along the head, neck, and shell. They belong to the pond turtle family Emydidae. The painted turtle’s shell is 10–25 cm (4–10 in) long, oval, smooth, and flat-bottomed without a ridge. Its skin is dark with red, orange, or yellow stripes on its extremities.
Subspecies can be distinguished easily by their shells: the Eastern has straight-aligned top shell segments; the Midland has a large gray mark on the bottom shell; the Southern has a red line on the top shell; the Western has a red pattern on the bottom shell.
The painted turtle lives and hunts along water bottoms. It quickly raises its head into and out of vegetation to stir potential victims out into the open water, where they can be hunted by the turtle.
