Yellow mud turtles use touch to communicate with other yellow mud turtles. They use scent for social communication and to detect prey. Yellow mud turtles emit a strong musky odor when threatened by a predator.
Communication Channels: tactile ; chemical
Other Communication Modes: scent marks
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; chemical
Yellow mud turtles have few natural predators as adults. As eggs and young they are preyed on by skunks, raccoons, other turtles, water snakes, and large predatory fish. When yellow mud turtles are threatened they release a potent smell from their bodies which may repel predators.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Yellow mud turtles have high-domed carapaces. The scutes are rounded and smooth, but the ninth and tenth scutes are larger than the others. The carapace can be olive green, brown, or tan with the borders of each scute bordered in black. Males are slightly larger than females. Males have larger heads than females, but they are more flattened on top. The head, neck, and limbs are the same color as the shell, but the chin and cheeks are yellowish. Yellow mud turtles range from 10.2 to 15.2 cm in body length. Female yellow mud turtles have an average size of 11.4 cm, males are slightly larger with an average size of 14 cm. Average mass is 391 g.
Average mass: 391 g.
Range length: 10.2 to 15.2 cm.
Average length: 11.4 cm.
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; heterothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: male larger; sexes shaped differently
Yellow mud turtles have a lifespan of about fifteen years in the wild. Turtles in captivity have a lifespan of roughly ten years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 15 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 10 years.
Yellow mud turtles are found in freshwater habitats. They are found in small permanent and temporary ponds. Yellow mud turtles are found mainly in smaller ponds with muddy bottoms with little or no vegetation. In arid regions yellow mud turtles can be found in cattle tanks, ditches, and sewer drains. When their small pools and ditches start drying up, yellow mud turtles can be found buried beneath the mud.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial ; freshwater
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland
Aquatic Biomes: lakes and ponds; temporary pools
Other Habitat Features: agricultural ; riparian
Yellow mud turtles range throughout the midwest United States, from the northern parts of Mexico to as far north as Nebraska. Yellow mud turtles are also found in eastern New Mexico, Oklahoma, southeast Arizona and western Kansas. There are disjunct populations in northeast Missouri and central Illinois.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
Yellow mud turtles are omnivores with a broad diet. Animals consumed range from small insects to amphibians and reptiles, as long as they are smaller than the turtle. Yellow mud turtles generally forage in the water, but sometimes find food on the surface of the water or on land. Their sense of smell and taste enable these turtles to locate food easily under water. Yellow mud turtles eat vegetation, carrion, fish, shrimp, crayfish, snails, and small clams. Yellow mud turtles also prey on the eggs of other turtles and fish. During dry seasons, yellow mud turtles bury themselves in mud or dirt and prey on earthworms, insects, spiders, and ticks.
Animal Foods: amphibians; reptiles; fish; eggs; carrion ; insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods; mollusks; terrestrial worms; aquatic crustaceans
Plant Foods: leaves; algae
Other Foods: detritus
Primary Diet: omnivore
Feces from Kinosternon flavescens helps with soil fertilization. Yellow mud turtles help regulate population size of small fishes and amphibians by feeding on the eggs of many species. Yellow mud turtles are parasitized by leeches, Macrobdella decora, which attach themselves to the skin of their legs and tails. Algae are also found on the shells of yellow mud turtles, including Basicladia chelonum and Basicladia crassa. Algae typically had no harmful effect on the turtle but, in rare cases the algae harmed the strength of the shell.
Commensal/Parasitic Species:
Yellow mud turtles are important predators of fishes, snakes, and other turtles in their native ecosystems.
Kinosternon flavescens flavescens was introduced to portions of Arizona and may have become an aquatic nuisance species there.
As soon as yellow mud turtles have hatched the new young are nearly independent. Some female turtles stay with the young for a few days, but others abandon the eggs. Once hatched, these turtles begin looking for food.
Yellow mud turtle populations are stable throughout most of their range. Yellow mud turtles are not endangered or threatened in northern Nebraska through Texas and into Mexico. In Missouri K. f. flavescens is listed as state endangered. Kinosternon flavescens flavescens is on the state-endangered list in Illinois.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: no special status
There are three phases of courtship in mating: tactile, mounting, and intromission (biting and rubbing). The tactile stage involves a male turtle approaching another turtle with head extended to smell the tail to determine the sex. If the turtle is male, the courtship ends; if female, the male will nudge the area of her nose around the musk glands. The female will usually move away at this point and the male turtle will either follow her or go elsewhere. If followed the male turtle will attempt to bite and nip the female around her head. The male turtle will then mount the female, which can occur on land, in the water, or along the shoreline. This stage lasts from a few seconds to 3 minutes. The second stage of mounting then begins, with the male mounting on all fours and using its tail to grab and move the female's tail, after which copulation occurs.
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Yellow mud turtles mate in April and May, a second period of mating occurs in September. Most nesting occurs during the springtime and hatching during the fall. Young turtles hatch and either spend the winter in a pond or bury themselves in the mud until spring. Yellow mud turtles usually have one clutch a year, but sometimes have a second clutch. The clutch size is typically 4 to 6 eggs. Female turtles become sexually mature at 5 to 8 years of age, males mature at 4 to 7 years old.
Breeding interval: Yellow mud turtles breed once a year.
Breeding season: Breeding occurs from July through September.
Range number of offspring: 3 to 6.
Average number of offspring: 4.
Range gestation period: 2 to 3 months.
Range time to independence: 0 to 40 days.
Average time to independence: 10-15 days.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 5 to 8 years.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 4 to 7 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Female yellow mud turtles lay eggs on the surface of the ground or dig a shallow hole in which they lay the eggs. Once laid, females will often stay with their eggs for forty days, but some will leave after laying the egg. Most females only stay for ten to fifteen days with their eggs. After hatching, young turtles are entirely independent. Hatchlings either stay in a pond over the winter months or bury themselves in mud to overwinter.
Parental Investment: no parental involvement; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Protecting: Female)
The yellow mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens),[3] also commonly known as the yellow-necked mud turtle,[4] is a species of mud turtle in the family Kinosternidae. The species is endemic to the Central United States and Mexico.
Its current presence is uncertain in Veracruz (Mexico) and Arkansas (United States).
The yellow mud turtle is a small, olive-colored turtle. Both the common name, yellow mud turtle, and the specific name, flavescens (Latin: yellow), refer to the yellow-colored areas on the throat, head, and sides of the neck. The bottom shell (plastron) is yellow to brown with two hinges, allowing the turtle to close each end separately. The male's tail has a blunt spine on the end, but the female's tail does not.
The yellow mud turtle can live for more than 40 years.[5]
Yellow mud turtles are omnivorous. Their diet includes worms, crayfish, frogs, snails, fish, fairy shrimp, slugs, leeches, tadpoles, and other aquatic insects and invertebrates. They also eat vegetation and dead and decaying matter.
Yellow mud turtles forage on land and water for food. In early spring their main diet is fairy shrimp they find in the shallows of their ponds. While they are burrowing, they will eat earthworms or grubs they encounter. Some studies show these turtles will eat earthworms that pass in front of them while hibernating. They also consume fish and other aquatic organisms.
Most female aquatic turtles excavate a nest in the soil near a water source, deposit their eggs and leave, but yellow mud turtles exhibit a pattern of parental care. They are the only turtle that has been observed that stays with the eggs for any period of time. The female lays a clutch of 1-9 eggs[6] and stays with the eggs for a period of time of a few hours up to 38 days. It is believed that the female stays to keep the predators away from the eggs. It was also observed that the females would urinate on their nests in dry years. This is believed to aid in the hatch success rate of the eggs in dry years.
It is believed that in their natural habitat that spring rains induce the turtles to begin nesting. The eggs hatch in the fall and some hatchlings leave the nest and spend the winter in aquatic habitats, but most of the hatchlings burrow below the nest and wait until spring to emerge and then move to the water. This is believed to aid in survival rates of the hatchlings, because some water bodies freeze solid during the winter. Another benefit of waiting to emerge in the spring is that hatchlings enter an environment of increasing resources, such as heat, light, and food.
The yellow mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens), also commonly known as the yellow-necked mud turtle, is a species of mud turtle in the family Kinosternidae. The species is endemic to the Central United States and Mexico.
