Painted Turtles
The Painted Turtle can be found on the southeast side of Vancouver Island. The one in these photos was in the Victoria area. They prefer the shores and shallows of lakes, ponds, ditches, and sluggish creeks and streams that have muddy bottoms and a variety of aquatic plants. These creatures also require nearby upland nesting areas that face south, are relatively dry and the soil is easily dug for nesting sites. Read More….
Red-Eared Slider Turtles
The red-eared turtle is an invasive species on Vancouver Island and could spell trouble for our painted turtle. Most have been released into the wild from people who purchased them as pets. The red-eared turtle is turning up in ponds and lakes across the coast. They are considered among the world’s 100 most invasive species. This turtle has a red earmark located just behind the eye. Read More….
Turtles live mainly in water, there are about 250 species. But we only have one indigenous turtle left on Vancouver Island. Some can live up to 150 years or more. The largest one that visits Vancouver Island is the leatherback, it can reach a shell length of almost 3 meters and weigh up to 900 kilos. Though they move very slowly on land, the leatherbacks can swim at 30 kilometres, and some turtles can dive to more than 1000 meters deep.
They do not have ears to hear and can only feel vibrations, but their sense of smell is very strong. Turtles migrate thousands of kilometres by travelling underwater and yet, they are able to arrive at the same beach from where they took off, scientists are still trying to figure out how they do this, l would suspect that they use their sense of smell to accomplish this.
The only native turtle left on Vancouver Island is the painted turtle, although there are the introduced red-eared slider and the snapping turtle that is found on parts of the Island now, a result of pet store turtles being turned loose.
Whatvare the LARGE turtles which populate Buttertubs Marsh?
The are already our and basking in considerable numbers. It’s still to early for the Western Pained Turtles which need to be better described since they are VERY small. It would be good to have side-by-side pictures of those TWO species to clarify the huge size difference. Most of the ones currently in evidence are the size of a salad plate. I have yet to see a WPT akthough there are signs everywhere around the Marsh warning walkers to avoid nesting and basking sites.
I would suspect they are painted turtles, you can easily tell them apart from red sliders by the red markings on the head of the slider. I would not think they are snappers as they are limited to certain areas like tofino and duncan although they could be.