BLANDING'S TURTLE

Identification
The Blanding’s Turtle is a medium-sized, semi-aquatic turtle. The most distinguishing feature of the Blanding’s Turtle is its bright yellow chin and throat. The carapace is highly domed and smooth. It is usually dark olive in color and has irregular pale yellow spots that may run together forming irregular streaks. This pattern may be lost or faded in older adults. Another distinguishing feature is the slightly moveable hinge between the pectoral and abdominal scutes on the plastron. This characteristic can allow individuals to close the front of their shell, much like box turtles.

Distribution and Status
The range of the Blanding’s Turtle is concentrated in the Great Lakes region and extends from southern Ontario west including Michigan, Wisconsin, northern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, southern Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. There have also been isolated records from southeast South Dakota and northwest Missouri. Disjunct populations can be found in New York, Nova Scotia and from southern Maine to Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts ( US distribution map; Midwest distribution map). In the Midwest, the Blanding’s Turtle is viewed as imperiled in all of the states in which it is found. It is listed as state Endangered in Indiana and Missouri, state Threatened in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and is a species of Special Concern in Michigan and Ohio. Click HERE for state by state status descriptions.

Ecology
Blanding’s Turtles use a variety of habitats throughout their range, including marshes, creeks, wet prairies, sloughs and fens, and the edges of lakes and ponds. Despite this variation, consistent habitat features include relatively shallow systems, clean water, soft organic substrates, and reasonably dense aquatic vegetation. During the active season Blanding’s Turtles regularly travel across land to access other wetlands. Females may also travel as far as a kilometer away from wetlands to nest. During winter months Blanding’s Turtles may hibernate underwater, partially buried in the substrate.

Fragmentation and loss of wetland habitats has lead to population declines across much of the Blanding’s Turtle’s range. Given its reliance on shallow, often isolated, and even temporary, wetlands, this species has been particularly impacted by the filling and draining of wetlands for urban and agricultural development. Adults moving between wetlands, and females seeking nesting sites, are vulnerable to road mortality. Conservation and management plans must not only address maintaining sufficient suitable habitat for the adults, but also the need for extremely shallow systems by the youngest turtles, and threats to recruitment due to nest losses to predators. For those looking for some guidance in turtle friendly land management techniques, the Permanent Wetlands section of the Habitat Management Guidelines for Reptiles and Amphibians of the Midwest offers some excellent ideas.

Resources
Ernst. C. H., J. E. Lovich and R. W. Barbour. 1994. Turtles of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, USA.