A year in the life of a western pond turtle
October: hatching
Western pond turtles are only about the size of a quarter when they hatch from their eggs. Awww!
It’s time! And it’s nighttime - perfect to evade predators. I use my tiny tooth-like bump on my upper jaw, called a caruncle or my egg tooth, to start a little crack in my egg so I can push my way out. It’s dark outside but the light of the moon begins to stream into the cracks of the shell.
Being only the size of a quarter, this is hard work! I push my arm through the widening crack and put my tiny foot onto the ground but quickly pull it back into my egg. It’s chilly out there compared to the warmth of my egg! I peek my eye out instead – it is dark but I can see a few other milky white eggs, each only about an inch long and unhatched. I can’t wait to meet my siblings! Our nest is covered with vegetation and soil to keep us hatchlings warm and protected from predators. I think I’ll stay in my nest with my siblings until it warms up out there. Hopefully, no raccoons or skunks will find us nestled in here…
April: the long adventure to water
It’s finally warm enough to brave the journey to the pond! I am still quite tiny, so this can be quite the perilous adventure. I emerge from my nest and follow my mother towards the pond on wobbly little legs. She’s about 8 times the length of me, and much darker in color. She has radiating lines on her scutes, or the pieces that make up her upper shell, atop a dome-shaped carapace. Her belly, or plastron, is black and yellow. I can’t wait to look like her one day!
I’ve been in a state of brumation for the frosty season, and have relied on stored fat reserves for energy during the winter. I’m quite hungry and can’t wait to get my little claws on some grub, maybe even actual grubs! I tread through the duff and vegetation and grasses of the forest floor. This is exhausting! The pond is getting closer and closer, reflecting the beautiful blue sky and sunshine, but it’s still a ways away.
Western pond turtles can often be seen sunbathing on logs, rocks, or other debris in or near water sources during the hot months.
After a week of effort (can you believe it?!), I eventually reach the pond and dip my toe into the water. Oh, how delightful that feels, my feet in the calm water and the warm sunshine on my shell. I scooch into the water, making ripples along the surface. I submerge my head and begin cruising the bottom of the shallow pond for food. Fun fact about me! We can only eat underwater because I need the pressure of the water to swallow my food! As a hatchling, I enjoy nekton, or aquatic organisms that can propel themselves through water, larvae of small aquatic insects, and other small invertebrates. One day, when I become an adult, I will eat a more substantial diet, consisting of small aquatic invertebrates like crustaceans and insects, aquatic plants, carrion, and even sometimes frogs and their eggs and fish.
Not to brag, but something very special about us is that our diet contributes to the health and tidiness of our habitats. Because we are opportunistic scavengers, we keep aquatic vegetation and bug and fish populations at bay. Even more, when we navigate between our aquatic and terrestrial habitats, we poop out seeds and contribute to vegetation diversity. How many can say their waste doesn’t go to waste!?
It takes a long time to find a decent meal, but once my belly’s full, I clamber up a small log sticking up out of the water and have a nice bask. Basking is an awesome form of turtle self-care, highly recommend! The sun helps us thermoregulate, keep our shells dry and clear of shell rot, and helps us to produce vitamin D. What a delightful day as a Western Pond Turtle in Oregon.
May: love is in the air!
It is time for the female turtles of our population to bring more baby turtles into the world! I have quite a few years before I am mature enough to be a part of this. But the romance has been hot and heavy recently, and the soon-to-be mothers will begin moving upland to begin nesting and laying eggs. I can’t wait to meet my future cousins!
July: Meet my bullies…
Western pond turtles have numerous threats, including red-eared sliders.
I’ve been dealing with a bully lately. His name is Brock and he’s a red-eared slider. Humans keep sliders as pets until they decide they don’t want them anymore, then bring them to our habitats. We don’t want them either! They’re bigger than us and can be quite the bullies, taking over our homes and getting all the good food and basking spots. Brock really has it out for me. He’s always knocking me off the basking log and stealing my lunch. Sliders also usually bring baggage with them - disease! Gross, cooties!
Speaking of bullies, we also have to watch out for bull-frogs who are invasive and eat little hatchlings like myself. Talk about a nightmare! American bull-frogs were introduced to Oregon in the 1900s, brought over as food because their legs are apparently a delicacy to humans. They’ve since spread throughout the west, damaging local biodiversity in their wake.
There are many other things that threaten our well-being, but let’s forget about those things for now. No one wants a Tenebrific Turtle!
Did you catch that John Denver reference over there?
August: hiding from the heat
It’s been quite hot here at the turtle pond, and the sun is really intense! It gets pretty warm in our heavy armor. As cold-blooded reptiles, we cannot internally regulate our body temperatures. This is why we love the sun. However, sometimes it does get a little too hot for us, and we have to find ways to externally cool ourselves. How do we do that, you ask? We will aestivate! This means entering a state of dormancy similar to hibernation or brumation.
We like to do this either buried under cool mud in our pond or we will travel upland and hide someplace cool an’ green an’ shady, as John Denver says. What, turtles can’t enjoy some folk music too?
October: it’s getting colder…
Happy first birthday to me! Let’s shell-ebrate! And I have my whole life ahead of me, maybe 70 years to go if I’m a lucky turtle! It’s getting chilly again and will soon start to get too cold for us cold-blooded critters. This time of year, we start, as early as September, our journey upland into terrestrial habitats, sometimes traveling up to 3 miles! It’s the Oregon Trail over here, I swear.
As turtles in Oregon, especially in areas where we get extreme heat in the summer and snow in the winter, we really spend a significant portion of our time in our upland, terrestrial homes. Our pond habitat is more like our summer vacation home. Pool party! Bit of a misnomer, Western Pond Turtle, isn’t it? Based on that name, one would expect us to spend all our lives in a pond, but alas, that’s not the reality. In fact, I know some distant relatives that live near rivers with not a pond in sight!
December: time to rest
Being cold blooded, western pond turtles will hibernate during the winter, and they will reemerge in the spring when warmer temperatures have returned.
Shh, be really quiet because everyone is sleeping. We are in the middle of our overwintering and brumation season, spending the frozen winter in warm upland habitat. We have buried into some thick duff, conifer leaf litter, and other vegetation to keep warm, and there are quite a few of us snuggled in here. On sunny days, we will head outside for some sunbathing and basking. Some of us will stay here for up to eight months, and some of us have even stayed in the pond buried under the mud.
It’s weird to think about what winter is like for some of my distant relatives that live in warm places like southern California - they never experience snow! I think they spend much more of their year at their summer vacation pond homes.
Well, I’m going to go back into brumation for now. See you in spring! I think I heard the folks at KS Wild are planning a trip out to visit some of my fam - join them for a turtle-y good time!
KS Wild is actively working to protect the western pond turtle.
Stay tuned to our ForestWatch work to learn more about these efforts. To get involved by taking action and advocating for the western pond turtle, sign up to receive our action alerts—sent directly to you! Click here to learn more.