North GroundHuntNorth Ground Hunt — return to North Ground
Species authority page

Southern painted turtle

Chrysemys dorsalis · Turtles · Reptiles

Southern painted turtle (Chrysemys dorsalis): Small aquatic turtle, 4-6 in, with a smooth olive-brown to nearly black carapace lacking a keel and a prominent yellow, orange or red stripe down the centre of the back. Marginal scutes have prominent red or orange; plastron plain yellow or tan, sometimes with a faint brown central blotch. 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
Chrysemys dorsalis
Family
Emydidae
In North America
Native
Range
Central Mississippi valley to the Gulf: NatureServe lists Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama; not recorded for Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Small aquatic turtle, 4-6 in, with a smooth olive-brown to nearly black carapace lacking a keel and a prominent yellow, orange or red stripe down the centre of the back. [1][2][3]

Marginal scutes have prominent red or orange; plastron plain yellow or tan, sometimes with a faint brown central blotch. [1][2][3]

Yellow lines on the head and chin, a yellow spot behind each eye, and red or orange lines on the neck and forelimbs; young are brighter with a slight keel. [1][2][3]

Compared with the painted turtle: The painted turtle (western painted in Missouri) usually lacks the broad lengthwise stripe on the carapace; Tennessee WRA notes genetics are required to separate them with certainty. [1][2][3]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a southern painted turtle before you act. Compared with the painted turtle: The painted turtle (western painted in Missouri) usually lacks the broad lengthwise stripe on the carapace; Tennessee WRA notes genetics are required to separate them with certainty.[1][2][3]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Shallow swamps, slow streams, sloughs, oxbows, ditches, lakes and reservoirs with soft mud bottoms, aquatic vegetation and basking sites; in Missouri, wetlands within bottomland forest. [1][2][3]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Usually active from late March into early November; basks on logs, rocks and banks, often many on one log, and slips into water at slight disturbance. [1][2][3]

Eats plants and animals including algae, duckweed, snails, crayfish, frogs and fish. [1][2][3]

Often lays more than one clutch per year (4-20 eggs); hatchlings usually winter in the nest and emerge in spring. [1][2][3]

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

Central Mississippi valley to the Gulf: NatureServe lists Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama; not recorded for Canada.

Biology

Sources

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

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency

  3. Missouri Department of Conservation · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Missouri Department of Conservation