North American Coastal Plain Cooter Habitats Are Sodden and Sunny

Summary: North American coastal plain cooter habitats are slow-current, sodden, soft-bottom, sunny waters, in the southeastern coastal plain of the United States.

(left to right) Peninsula cooter (Pseudemys florida peninsularis) shares log with Suwannee cooter (Pseudemys concinna suwanniensis) and Florida redbelly (Pseudemys nelsoni); Weeki Wachee River, west central Florida; Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014, 11:45:23, FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) photo by Karen Parker: Florida Fish and Wildlife (MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife), CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American coastal plain cooter habitats are slow-current, sodden, soft-bottom, sunny waters, in freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers, springs and swamps and saltwater tributaries of the southeastern coastal plain of the United States.

Coastal plain cooters bear their common name as southeastern coastal plain-based turtles of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. They carry the scientific names Pseudemys concinna (from Greek ψευδής, “false” and ἐμύς, “freshwater tortoise” and from Latin concinnus, “pleasing”), Pseudemys concinna floridana and Pseudemys floridana. John Eatton Le Conte (Feb. 22, 1784-Nov. 21, 1860) in 1830 scientifically described them as Testudo floridana (from Latin testūdō, “tortoise, turtle” and flōridānus, “Floridan, Floridian”).

Coastal plain cooter 40-year life cycles expect canals, lakes, large ponds, sloughs, sluggish rivers, spring runs and slow-flowing streams with enough aquatic vegetation for extended basking.

May through July furnish coastal plain cooters and related Alabama, Florida and northern red-bellied turtles, pond sliders and eastern, Suwanee and Texas river cooters spring-summer nesting.

Coastal plain cooters go out to grab morning and afternoon sunrays on protruding, semi-submerged logs and waterside bare soil, covered ground, fallen trunks and flat rocks. They head for shallow lake, marsh, river, spring and stream waters to hide under waterbed debris and rocks from hostile competitors, enemies, intruders, predators and rivals. Defensive involvements initiate inserting head, legs and tail back into horn-textured, scute-covered shells with 6 paired lower-shell scutes and, for each upper-shell side, 12 marginal scutes.

Agro-industrialists, collectors, polluters and predatory alligators, American crows, muskrats, opossums, raccoons, raptors, red foxes, river otters, snakes and weasels jeopardize North American coastal plain cooter habitats.

Coastal plain cooters know two or more internally fertilized, seasonal clutches, each with 4 to 22 1-3/8 inch- (35-millimeter-) long, pink-white, semi-elliptical, semi-granular, semi-oval, soft-shelled, eggs.

Females sometimes lay just one egg each in 4 to 22 nest cavities 2 to 3 inches (5.08 to 7.62 centimeters) away from main nest chambers. Incubation makes up 80 to 150 days in 40-year lifespans even as female and male coastal plain cooters mature physically and sexually as 6- and 13-year-olds. August and September hatchlings need crustaceans, fish and invertebrates even as clams, crayfish, eelgrass, elodea, fish, green algae, insects, pondweeds, snails, tadpoles and turtle-grass nourish adults.

North American coastal plain cooter habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, north to southward, from minus 10 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23.3 to minus 1.1 degrees Celsius).

Freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers, springs and swamps and saltwater tributaries 98.42 feet (30 meters) from grassy, herbaceous foraging, nesting, sheltering sites protect coastal plain cooter lifespans.

Bright-green, light-marked, 27- to 39-millimeter- (1.06- to 1.54-inch-) long hatchlings quit 35.8- to 44.3-millimeter- (1.41- to 1.74-inch-) long, 22.5- to 27.6-millimeter- (0.89- to 1.09-inch-) wide eggs. The 5.2- to 14-gram (0.18- to 0.49-ounce) hatchlings reveal physically and sexually 5.5- to 7.7-pound (2.5- to 3.5-kilogram), 9- to 13-inch (23- to 33-centimeter-) long, physically and sexually mature bodies. Adults show center-barred upper marginals; dark-, doughnut-marked lower and upper surfaces; second costal scutes with one end or both forked; and yellow-striped black-brown arms and legs.

North American coastal plain cooter habitats trademark 12 upper-barred, lower-, doughnut-marked yellow-brown upper-shell sides; 6 paired yellow-plated lower-shelled scutes; and fork-ended, vertical-, wide-striped second costal scutes.

Peninsular cooter (Pseudemys florida peninsularis) swims in Weeki Wachee Springs, Weeki Wachee, Hernando County, west central Florida; Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014, 13:38:49, FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) photo by Karen Parker: Florida Fish and Wildlife (MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife), CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

(left to right) Peninsula cooter (Pseudemys florida peninsularis) shares log with Suwannee cooter (Pseudemys concinna suwanniensis) and Florida redbelly (Pseudemys nelsoni); Weeki Wachee River, west central Florida; Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014, 11:45:23, FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) photo by Karen Parker: Florida Fish and Wildlife (MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife), CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/myfwcmedia/15584532715/

Peninsular cooter (Pseudemys florida peninsularis) swims in Weeki Wachee Springs, Weeki Wachee, Hernando County, west central Florida; Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014, 13:38:49, FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) photo by Karen Parker: Florida Fish and Wildlife (MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife), CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/myfwcmedia/15585376672/

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