I.D. Features:
- Very small (Ontario's tiniest turtle)- smaller than a hand
Status: Threatened
Photo: Adopt-a-pond, Toronto Zoo - Makes a bad smell when handled, and generally as it stays mostly in water
- Tipped protruding and tiny nose
- High domed carapace (top-shell)
- Light olive to black
- Their plastron (bottom shell) is small, yellow-brown and gives little protection to legs; a "hinge" runs across the front of plastron allowing it to close upward to protect head
Habitat Features:
- Highly aquatic, rarely seen basking out of water
- Found in shallow bays, ponds, marshes and streams where they can stay under the water but still feel the heat of the sun
- Eats aquatic insects
- Sometimes when they do come out of the water they are known to climb trees up to 6 feet high, but when they fall asleep they often fall out
Range (Ontario Nature Reptile Atlas):
