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We know you all have been anxiously awaiting the answer to this month’s critter picture…

We had some wonderfully specific guesses this month—thank you. Surprisingly, we stumped you all this time and that doesn’t happen often around here!

Michael and Alison had the correct number and basic class of the creatures in the photo—there were seven turtles hiding in the duckweed covered pond. (Good call on the duckweed, Karen!) Unfortunately, they were not Red-eared Sliders which is what I also thought they were at first glance. Of course, it is practically impossible to tell that from the little bit of their snouts that were sticking up in this image (unless you are a herpetologist). I had to rely on the other photos I took that day to identify them.

They are Western Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta bellii) that we stumbled across at the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge north of Missoula, Montana. There are four regional subspecies of Painted Turtles found throughout the country and they are related to other water turtles such as sliders and coots. They were fairly shy critters that quickly disappeared under the green mat of duckweed but there were quite a few of them. Now that I know more about them I wish we had turned one over to see it’s plastron. Their plastrons have gorgeous yellow and red designs on them, hence their common name.

Thank you to everyone who took a stab at this month’s challenge!

Western Painted Turtle