Reports and Photos Needed of Common Vermont Turtles

Despite twenty years of gathering data on Vermont's reptiles and amphibians, the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas still shows distribution gaps for our two most common turtle species: Snapping Turtle and Painted Turtle. We need new or updated photos of Snapping Turtles from 69 Vermont towns and photos of Painted Turtles from 74 towns. These species may be genuinely rare or even missing from some of our higher mountain towns, but in many cases the lack of reports is more likely the result of these species being so common that people don't think a report would be useful. You can view a list of towns from which we need photos for these two species at http://tinyurl.com/l9hra5p. At this time of year, many female turtles are traveling into the uplands in search of egg-laying sites. It is a good time to be on the look out for them. Of course, we can use reports of many other common and rare reptiles and amphibians as well. To search the complete list by town or species, visit http://vtherpatlas.org/.
--Jim Andrews

Note: Every quarter we share all of the reptile and amphibian reports on iNaturalist Vermont with the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas. We encourage you to get out there and help document all the amphibians and reptiles you can with photographs or sound recordings and share them here at iNaturalist Vermont.

Posted on Ιούνιος 05, 2014 1004 ΜΜ by kpmcfarland