Baby Painted Turtle

Each day brings something new, especially when you work in a park. Today, one of our maintenance staff, Adam Helton, brought a newly hatched Painted Turtle, Chrysemys picta, into my office. He rescued it from a puddle, where it was happily swimming around. Unfortunately, the puddle was in the path of traffic and only a few minutes after Adam had scooped up the turtle, a vehicle drove through the puddle. The little turtle was very lucky that Adam had stopped by and took the time to rescue it. Thank you so much, Adam!

 I took the turtle to our wetland area, where it could get all of its needs, yet not worry about big fish possibly snacking on it. It seemed quite happy in its new home.

 Here is a shot of its red belly. The Painted Turtle gets its name from its bright yellow and red markings.

I titled this photo "Lady, you are on my last nerve." Apparently, even turtles do not care for paparazzi. As you can see it is not much bigger that a penny, and probably just hatched in the last day or so.

Adam also showed me an adult Painted Turtle that had been hit by a car. This is the time of year when female turtles will travel to find a suitable place to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, she was hit by a car before she made it to her destination. When she was hit, she expelled seven eggs. Five were broken, but two were still in perfect shape. I took them to the wetland area where I had released the baby turtle and covered all but the top of the eggs with dirt. Hopefully, they will hatch, and we will have a few more Painted Turtles to look forward to.