Nature’s Ways: The Long-Lived Wood Turtle

The adult orange-legged turtle first entered my life during the spring of 2008, when it showed up at our newly built koi pond. After several visits, I noticed that it was missing its left front foot. So, we nicknamed it Stumpy.

Stumpy’s orange legs and a unique wood-like shell are the trademarks of our common wood turtle (Clemmys insculpta). Wood turtles forage for slugs, berries, leaves, carrion, tadpoles, earthworms and insects before they enter winter hibernation. Trout anglers often spot wood turtles in and along area streams, but the species is mainly a terrestrial turtle.

Adult wood turtles measure up to 10 inches long, and they are the largest member of the Clemmys genus. Their close relatives include the spotted turtle and the bog turtle. The latter is Pennsylvania’s only turtle on the federal “threatened species” list. Wood turtle numbers are declining due to loss of habitat and illegal collection for the pet trade.

The wood turtle’s range within Pennsylvania encompasses all but the western edge of the state. Only the snapping turtle and the midland painted turtle have wider ranges.

Wood turtles usually have a black head, scaly rough orange and black legs, tail and neck and a distinctive carapace or shell. The individual sections that cover their shells, called scutes, are slightly pointed and clearly show annual growth rings.

These rings and the shell’s brownish-gray color make it resemble a cluster of small tree stem cross sections glued together. A clean, wet carapace can make the turtle’s shell look like a fine piece of carved and varnished wood. It is no wonder that the wood turtle’s species name, insculpta, means engraved.

One can easily count the growth rings on a younger turtle’s shell, and a half-grown specimen might already be 10 years old. However, the rings on older turtles are often partially worn off, making them difficult to age. Wood turtles have been known to live over 40 years, and some herpetologists think that their lifespan could reach 100 years. Stumpy is at least 50 years old.

When we were children in the early 1960s, my brother John and I painted part of an adult wood turtle’s shell red-orange to mark it.

I discovered that turtle in the same general area again in the 1980s — traces of the paint still remained on its shell.

Researchers do not paint shells to mark individual turtles (and you shouldn’t either). Instead, they use a system of small notches that are filed into the edge of the turtle’s carapace. Wood turtles are one of the longest-lived animals in Pennsylvania.

Wood turtles emerge from hibernation in March or early April, and those past the age of 14 look for a mate. Mating occurs under water with the male on top, clasping the outer edge of the female’s carapace with all four legs.

Clutches of four to 12 eggs are usually laid in late April, May or June, but individual turtles may mate and lay eggs at any time during the spring or summer.

Females bury their eggs by excavating a cavity with their back legs. Nest locations are usually in sunny areas in loose shale, humus or, where available, the black cinder ballast used to make old railroad lines.

Females often dig many false holes — possibly a behavioral adaptation to confuse predators such as skunks and raccoons. Eggs hatch into inch-long turtles from July through October. I once found a newly hatched baby wood turtle in mid-August, but I have seen very few in my life.

Turtle nests receive no care from either parent. After hatching, baby turtles instinctively dig their way out of their subterranean nest, and they are on their own. Most wood turtle mortality occurs during the first few years of life. After that, their hard shell provides good protection from many predators, but it is no match for an automobile. Vehicles probably kill more adult wood turtles than any other single factor.

Could capturing a turtle along a stream and then releasing it a few days later in your backyard possibly harm the animal? Researchers at nearby Juniata College used a turtle-sized version of a radio collar to track the movements of an adult wood turtle over several years.

During its first year, the turtle emerged from hibernation and proceeded to make a summer-long circle, always seeming to be in the right location when different types of berries were ripening. It ended up hibernating the following autumn right back where it began. The turtle followed essentially the same path the following year. Moving a turtle or holding it captive for a few weeks might totally disrupt its life.

Much remains to be learned about the ecology of Pennsylvania turtles. As part of long-term research, students at Juniata continue to record the movements of individual wood and box turtles.

Stumpy returned to our koi pond in May 2009 and in early April in every year since. In June of 2009, we realized that “Stumpy” was a female when I observed her attempting to dig a hole in which to bury her eggs.

I have located her in my food plot, down a steep bank and across a stream — about 200 yards from our pond. Luckily, I once located her trapped inside of a wire enclosure that I had placed around a young apple tree. She had evidently squeezed under the circle wire, but then couldn’t get back out.

After many summers of spending time around us, she has a near zero fear of humans and will crawl right up to us. I hope that this will not be her undoing.

This column appears in the June 30-July 6, 2022 edition of The Centre County Gazette.