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 Alabama Map Turtle (Graptemys pulchra)

Alabama Map Turtle | Graptemys pulchra photo
Photograph by OpenCage. Some rights reserved.  (view image details)








ALABAMA MAP TURTLE FACTS
Description
The Alabama Map Turtle is a moderate-sized map turtle. The carapace is brown or dark olive with a series of concentric fine yellow markings on the dorsal scales. The back has a keel with prominent knobs. There is a black medial stripe down the carapace. The underside (plastron) is pale yellow, with darker marking round the edges. The skin is brown to olive with light yellow to yellow-green stripes and blotches. The head has a pattern like a mask, with a large blotch between the eyes joined to blotches behind the eyes. The neck stripes has fairly wide even sized stripes.

Size
length: males 9cm - 13cm; females 14cm - 29cm

Environment
large rivers with sandy or muddy bottoms, rocky streams. prefer areas with brush piles, tree branches or logs in the water for basking.

Food
crustaceans, insects, and some small fish

Breeding
The nesting season is from late April to August with the peak in June. Females lay six or seven clutches of four to six eggs each year.

Range
The Alabama Map Turtle is found in the Alabama, Tombigbee, Tensaw, Black Warrior and Coosa Rivers in Alabama, and the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers in Georgia. It is also found in streams, lakes and creeks near these rivers.

Classification
Class:Reptilia
Order:Testudines
Family:Emydidae
Genus:Graptemys
Species:pulchra
Common Name:Alabama Map Turtle


Relatives in same Genus
  Barbour's Map Turtle (G. barbouri)
  Common Map Turtle (G. geographica)
  Mississippi Map Turtle (G. kohnii)
  Black knobbed Map Turtle (G. nigrinoda)
  False Map Turtle (G. pseudogeographica)







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