North American Striped Mud Turtle Habitats Are Grassy, Wet and Woody

Summary: North American striped mud turtle habitats are grassy, wet and woody areas of southeastern United States, from southern Virginia south to the Florida Keys.

striped mud turtle (Kinosternon baurii) as a pet; Florida; Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005, 23:17: Jessica Dennett (Jdennett77), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

North American striped mud turtle habitats are grassy, wet and woody areas of southeastern United States, from southern Virginia south, through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida to the Keys.

Striped mud turtles bear their common names for head and neck stripes, mud-bedecked bodies, muddy banks, biogeographies and burrows and mud and musk turtle family membership. They claim the scientific name Kinosternon baurii (from Greek κῑνέω, “to move” and στέρνον, “chest”), for Bohemia-born herpetology-specialized zoologist Georg Baur (Jan. 4, 1859-June 25, 1898). Pennsylvania-born naturalist and herpetology- and ichthyology-specialized zoologist Samuel Garman (June 5, 1843-Sep. 30, 1927) scientifically described striped mud turtle specimens from Key West, Florida, in 1891.

Striped mud turtle life cycles expect year-round breeding seasons even as March through October in Virginia and June and September through November elsewhere entertain peak times.

Testudines (from Latin testūdō, "turtle" and Greek -ηνός via Latin –īnus, “of”) hidden- and side-necked turtle order females annually favor maximally six 1- to 6-egg clutches.

Striped mud turtles get muddy bodies from going, like other Kinosternidae mud and musk turtle family members, into mud banks and burrows and over muddy bottoms. They have the kinosternid hallmarks of blunt, short tails on females and blunt-, long- or spiny-tailed males with two patches of tilted scales on inner hind-legs. Two pairs of musk glands that inundate intruders with awful-colored, horrible-scented, terrible-textured secretions from beneath upper-shell (carapace) borders identify them as mud and musk family turtles.

Climate change, development activities, freshwater-wetland drainage, natural enemies, oil spills, removal of mosquito-controlling ditches, saltwater intrusions and vehicle strikes jeopardize North American striped mud turtle habitats.

Striped mud turtles keep safe with muddy wetland camouflage and muddy immersions up to snouts, scuted (plated) upper-shells and lower-shells (plastrons) and, if males, spiny tails.

Loamy, sandy or vegetative litter lodges 1 to 6 clutches of 1 to 7 brittle, elliptical, hard-shelled, porcelain-like, stark white-banded or translucent blue-pink-white, 1.25-inch- (27-millimeter-) eggs. Twenty-two-millimeter (0.9-inch) hatchlings move from their shells within 80 to 145 days, may overwinter in birth nests and mature physically and sexually as five- to seven-year-olds. Insects, snails and worms nourish omnivorous (from Latin omnis, “all” and vorō (“I devour”) and adjective-forming suffix -us via –vorus, “-eating”) North American striped mud turtles.

North American striped mud turtle habitats offer season-coldest temperature ranges, north to southward, from minus 5 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20.6 to 1.7 degrees Celsius).

Cupressaceae (from Greek κυπάρισσος, cypress [Cupressus sempervirens] via Latin cupressus and -āceae, “-like”) family members populate blackwater swamps, ponds and streams preferred by striped mud turtles.

Physically and sexually mature striped mud turtles quarter 3- to 5-inch- (75- to 127-millimeter-) long carapaces (upper-shells, from Spanish carapacho, “tortoise, turtle shell” via French carapace). They reveal black or black-brown shells and black or black-gray skin even as they typically retain yellow-lined heads, necks and upper-shells and yellow-striped heads and necks. Females showcase blunt, short, thin tails even as male tails, always longer and thicker, sometimes blunt or sometimes horned and spiny, stick out beyond upper-shell margins.

North American striped mud turtle habitats tender 11- to 12-ounce (311.85- to 340.19-gram) bodies with domed upper-shells, triply yellow-striped among northern populations, and hinged, rust-colored lower-shells.

Double-hinged plastron (bottom shell), similar to eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina), characterizes striped mud turtles (Kinosternon baurii): MyFWC Life @MyFWClife, via Twitter April 28, 2014

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

striped mud turtle (Kinosternon baurii) as a pet; Florida; Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005, 23:17: Jessica Dennett (Jdennett77), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Striped_mud_turtle_(Kinosternon_baurii).jpg

Double-hinged plastron (bottom shell), similar to eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina), characterizes striped mud turtles (Kinosternon baurii): MyFWC Life @MyFWClife, via Twitter April 28, 2014, @ https://twitter.com/MyFWClife/status/460805106557263872

For further information:

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MyFWC Life ‏@MyFWClife. 28 April 2014. "Yes: 2 hinges on bottom shell + stripes = striped mud turtle, Kinosternon baurii." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MyFWClife/status/460805106557263872

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