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Eastern mud turtle

Kinosternon subrubrum · Turtles · Reptiles

Eastern mud turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum): Two plastral hinges under an oval carapace that is solid brown, olive with irregular yellow streaks, or solid black. Head has irregular, often jagged markings or stripes between eye and nostril; limbs smudged grey, brown or black. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Kinosternon subrubrum
Family
Kinosternidae
In North America
Native
Range
Eastern United States from Long Island, New York south to the Florida Panhandle, west along the Gulf Coast to eastern Texas and north to southern Illinois and Indiana; disjunct population in northwestern Indiana.
Biology

How to identify it

Two plastral hinges under an oval carapace that is solid brown, olive with irregular yellow streaks, or solid black. [1][2]

Head has irregular, often jagged markings or stripes between eye and nostril; limbs smudged grey, brown or black. [1][2]

Tail tipped with a spine; notch at the rear of the plastron. [1][2]

Males: longer tail, larger head, patch of raised scales on the hind legs. [1][2]

Striped mud turtle (K. baurii) has a pair of head stripes and carapace stripes; K. subrubrum has no carapace stripes. [1][2]

Compared with the striped mud turtle: Striped mud turtle (Kinosternon baurii) has a pair of head stripes and usually carapace stripes; eastern mud turtle lacks carapace stripes. [1][2]

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a eastern mud turtle before you act. Compared with the striped mud turtle: Striped mud turtle (Kinosternon baurii) has a pair of head stripes and usually carapace stripes; eastern mud turtle lacks carapace stripes.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Shallow, slow or nonflowing fresh or brackish water with soft bottom and abundant vegetation, and wet meadows; frequently travels overland. [1][2]

Nests in soft soil in open areas not far from water. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Solitary and largely crepuscular in summer; active year-round in the south, hibernates about November-March in the north. [1][2]

Seldom basks; bottom feeder on insects, mollusks, crustaceans, amphibian larvae, carrion and aquatic plants. [1][2]

In South Carolina spent late summer through winter about 170 days in upland refugia up to 135 m from wetlands. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Eastern United States from Long Island, New York south to the Florida Panhandle, west along the Gulf Coast to eastern Texas and north to southern Illinois and Indiana; disjunct population in northwestern Indiana.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology