Florida Turtles Types

The turtles were kept in water filled pens known as kraals or corrals.
Florida turtles types. The florida softshell turtle has a flat body long neck an elongated head and a snorkel like nose. Florida is home to 34 turtle species. Non native in florida keys apalone mutica le sueur 1827 smooth softshell apalone mutica calvata webb 1959 gulf coast smooth softshell apalone spinifera le sueur 1827 spiny softshell apalone spinifera aspera agassiz 1857 gulf coast spiny softshell. In addition to size as a key identification trait the stripes along the shell of the striped mud turtle represents a good field identification clue.
Four species of mud turtles and musk turtles can also be found in most areas of florida. In order to make filtering easy we have categorized them by different types of turtles including all of your favorites like sliders box turtles snapping turtles and more. Several varieties of box turtle as well as the gopher tortoise. They are best known as small less than six inch shells nondescript turtles.
These slow moving long lived reptiles face major challenges in the sunshine state from collection for the pet trade road mortality and. North atlantic green sea turtle nests increased from 464 nests on florida beaches in 1989 to 39 000 in 2017 after being protected in 1978. Florida softshell turtle apalone ferox is a species of softshell turtle found primarily in the state of florida but it also ranges to southern sections of south carolina georgia alabama tennessee and texas. The total statewide population increased from 62 known.
It has the darkest carapace of softshell turtle species endemic to florida and whitish cream plastron. By 1878 15 000 green turtles a year were shipped from florida and the caribbean to england. More than 30 species of turtle call florida home and while the majority are primarily aquatic a handful go about their business mostly on land. Turtle species guide with caresheets below you will find a few of the many different types of turtle species.
The shell is nearly round rather than heart shaped as with the other sea turtle species. Checklist of florida turtles click on thumbnails for a larger view apalone ferox schneider 1783 florida softshell. In this article i am going to take a closer look at each species and cover a few basic things about them things like the appearance lifespan how big it can get diet where it lives conservation status and reproduction.