Turtles are often associated with words like “slow” or “fearful,” but many wildlife enthusiasts know these tiny tanks are built to withstand a wide variety of challenges. Turtles – both land and aquatic – can be found across our great state and provide a wealth of ecosystem services.
Wow your friends with these turtle truths:
Oklahoma has EIGHTEEN species of turtles.
📷 Western chicken turtle.
Four broad groups of turtles can be found in the state: snapping turtles, mud and musk turtles, pond and box turtles, and softshell turtles. And three species, the common snapping turtle, red-eared slider, and spiny softshell can be found statewide.
With the exception of the two box turtles, all of Oklahoma's turtles are tied to water. Body temperatures are largely influenced by the air temperature, so many of these water turtles bask on logs or on the bank to warm and be better able to respond to predators or digest food. To survive the winter, turtles may burrow underground or go dormant at the bottom of their stream or river.
Learn more about Oklahoma's turtles in the Wildlife Department's "A Field Guide to Oklahoma's Amphibians and Reptiles." Tips for identification, a map of the Oklahoma range, and information about the diet and preferred habitats are provided for 135 of the herptofauna that can be found in the state. The book's spiral binding makes it easy to flip through and make comparisons of different species when identifying animals at home or in the field. Copies are available at GoOutdoorsOklahoma.com.
Not all turtles have a hard, bony shell.
📷 Spiny Softshell
Two of Oklahoma’s turtle species are known as “softshells” and have soft and flexible leathery shells. How do you tell the two apart? While spiny softshell turtles do have small, blunt spines on the edge of the shell, they are best distinguished from midland smooth softshell turtles by closely inspecting their snouts. Spiny softshells have small projections on the inside of their nostrils.
Turtles don’t have teeth and instead consume most of their food whole.
Strong jaws and claws are used to make larger prey more manageable.
📷 Mississippi Map Turtle
Contrary to popular belief, turtles are not universally detrimental to our state’s diverse fishery. While some species, like snapping turtles, are carnivorous, most predatory turtles are opportunistic scavengers and feed largely on dead fish. Adult red-eared sliders join several other turtle species in a more herbivorous diet, primarily eating aquatic plants. Still other turtles, like Mississippi map turtles, eat a variety of snails and freshwater mussels.
Hatchling turtles do have a keratinous egg tooth, or caruncle, on their beak tip that helps them break through the egg during hatching. The "tooth" is often lost after a few days.
Turtles are egg-layers.
📷 Alligator Snapping Turtle Eggs
After mating, females dig nests with their back feet, deposit their leathery eggs, and leave their offspring’s fate to nature. Because of the permeable nature of the shell, nests must be made on land. Turtle eggs and newly hatched turtles are often sought out by predators.
Most turtles begin courting in the spring.
📷 Plains Box Turtle
Though seasonal, multiple clutches may be produced from May through mid-July. Three-toed box turtles can even store sperm for up to four years and have been known to produce fertilized eggs years after mating. Male box turtles have red eyes while females have yellow or brown eyes.
Turtle gender is largely determined by incubation temperature.
📷 Red-eared Slider
Depending on the species, two patterns emerge. In some turtles, low incubation temperatures only produce males while high temperatures only produce females. In other turtles, both high and low incubation temperatures generate mostly females while intermediate incubation temperatures generate mostly males.