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Spotted Turtle - Clemmys guttata
This species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and is a species of special concern in Connecticut.
I found it on a huge rock covering a small mountain top in NW Connecticut. I thought it was a weird location, but maybe it was nesting in the area.
The Spotted turtle , the only extant species of ''Clemmys'', is a small, semi-aquatic turtle that reaches a carapace length of 8–12 cm upon adulthood. Their broad, smooth, low dark-colored upper shell, or carapace, ranges in its exact colour from black to a bluish black with a number of yellow tiny round spots. The spotting patterning extends from the head, to the neck and out onto the limbs. Males and females can be distinguished by differences in plastron shape and eye and chin colouration.
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