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Chicken turtle fossils are known from the Pliocene, Pleistocene, and recent sites in Florida.
Males use tactile communication to make females receptive to copulation. As in most turtles, chicken turtles use vision, touch, and chemical cues to perceive their environment. They are wary when basking.
Communication Channels: tactile
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; vibrations ; chemical
Chicken turtle populations are currently considered stable throughout their range, although they do face potential threats. Habitat destruction reduces suitable habitat for foraging, migration, and hibernation. Chicken turtles are sometimes killed on roads as they migrate between habitats. Hunting for food also impacts populations of chicken turtles.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
Chicken turtle embryos go through a period of diapause in the late gastrula stage. They must experience a period of cool temperatures before development proceeds. Eggs hatch in 152 days at 29 degrees Celsius in South Carolina and in 78 to 89 days at 25 to 29 degrees Celsius in Florida. Some eggs may overwinter in the nest before hatching. Incubation temperature influences the sex of the embryos, with a 25 degrees Celsius incubation temperature resulting in all males. Warmer temperatures result in an increase in female embryos, with only 11% becoming males at incubation temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius.
Although size and age are directly related in chicken turtles, some individuals may experience several years of little or no growth, depending on environmental conditions.
Development - Life Cycle: temperature sex determination
There are no negative impacts of chicken turtles on humans.
Chicken turtles were once found in the food markets of the southern United States for their meat. Their common name, "chicken" turtle, refers to their taste.
Positive Impacts: food
Chicken turtles are both predators and prey. They impact populations of aquatic insects, crustaceans, tadpoles, and aquatic vegetation.
Chicken turtles are omnivorous, though they are somewhat more carnivorous than other turtle species. During their first year of life they may be almost completely carnivorous. Chicken turtles in South Carolina were found to be completely carnivorous during June and July (Buhlmann and Demuth, 1997). They eat primarily crustaceans, aquatic insects, tadpoles, fish, and plants. Chicken turtles use their well-developed hyoid apparatus to create suction that pulls food items into their throats.
Animal Foods: amphibians; fish; insects; aquatic crustaceans
Plant Foods: leaves
Primary Diet: omnivore
Chicken turtles, made up of three subspecies, are found in suitable habitat throughout the southeastern United States. Deirochelys reticularia is found in coastal areas from Virginia to Texas and northward into Oklahoma and Arkansas. The Florida subspecies, D. r. chrysea, is limited to peninsular Florida. The eastern, D. r. reticularia, and western, D. r. miaria, subspecies of chicken turtles are separated by the Mississippi River.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
Chicken turtles are semi-aquatic basking turtles, found on both water and land. They prefer quiet bodies of water: ponds, lakes, ditches, marshes, cypress swamps and Carolina bays. They bask on logs, rocks, and other emergent structures. They prefer water with plenty of aquatic vegetation and a soft substrate. Chicken turtles are tolerant of ephemeral aquatic habitats and readily travel onto land to burrow into the soil and escape dry conditions. They have been found at water depths of a few centimeters to more than 2 m.
Range depth: .01 to > 2 m.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial ; freshwater
Terrestrial Biomes: forest
Aquatic Biomes: lakes and ponds; rivers and streams; temporary pools
Wetlands: marsh ; swamp ; bog
Other Habitat Features: riparian
Wild chicken turtles in South Carolina have been recaptured up to 15 years after their first capture. Some reached maximum ages of 20 to 24 years.
Range lifespan
Status: wild: 24 (high) years.
Typical lifespan
Status: wild: 15 to 24 hours.
Average lifespan
Sex: female
Status: captivity: 6.1 years.
Chicken turtles are readily identified by their long, striped necks. Head and neck length is approximately equal to their plastron length, or up to 80% of the length of their carapace. They are sometimes called “American snake necks” because of this. They are small to medium-sized turtles with a pear-shaped, olive to dark brown carapace marked with a reticulate pattern of yellow to orange lines. They grow up to 25.4 cm long. The plastron is solid yellow and they have yellow stripes on their legs. Females are typically 1.5 times larger than males. Males have thicker tails, longer front claws, and more compressed shells than do females.
Gibbons and Greene (1978) described patterns of growth in chicken turtles. Younger chicken turtles grow proportionally faster than adults but age at maximum size is not known. Young are 2.5 cm in diameter at hatching. Males mature at 10.2 cm, while females are mature at 17.8 cm. Chicken turtles may grow to a maximum size of 25.4 cm, though the typical adult ranges from 15.3 to 17.8 cm.
Range length: 15.3 to 25.4 cm.
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; heterothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: female larger; sexes shaped differently
Eastern moles (Scalopus aquaticus) are a significant predator of chicken turtle nests (Allen et al., 2005). Raccoons (Procyon lotor) and snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) are potential predators (Buhlmann, 1995).
Known Predators:
Males court female chicken turtles by vibrating their foreclaws against the female's face. Once the female is receptive, copulation occurs.
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Chicken turtles are different from most other North American turtles because they nest in either the fall and winter. In South Carolina there are two egg-laying seasons; from winter to early spring (February to May) and fall to early winter (August to November). The highest percentages of nesting females in South Carolina were during the months of March and September. Florida chicken turtles nest nearly continuously from mid-September to early March. Females excavate cylindrical nests on land in a variety of soil types, from sandy to heavy soils. Females lay 2 clutches each year in South Carolina, with 5 to 15 elliptical eggs per clutch (average of 8); in Florida clutch size is 2 to 19 (average 9). The eggs are flexible and oblong, measuring 28 to 40 mm long and weighing 8.7 to 13.3 g. Eggs laid in the fall are usually larger than those laid in spring.
Male chicken turtles reach sexual maturity at 7.5 to 8.5 cm in carapace length, usually during their second or third year. Females mature at carapace lengths of 14.1 to 16 cm, after about 5 years of growth.
Breeding interval: Chicken turtles lay up to two clutches each year.
Breeding season: Breeding occurs two times a year in the northern part of their range and throughout the year in the southern part of their range.
Range number of offspring: 2 to 19.
Average number of offspring: 8-9.
Range gestation period: 78 to 152 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 5 years.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 2 to 3 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; year-round breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 1825 days.
Like most turtles, chicken turtles do not care for the hatchlings. Parents do not help the young once the eggs are laid.
Parental Investment: pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female)
