Kansas Turtles: Identification Guide With Pictures

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: A record from Wallace County (KU 3028) exists and is undoubtedly an error. Grant (1937) states that "numbers of these turtles were observed in the turtle traps" at the State Fish Hatchery in Pratt on 29 August 1929.

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: The False Map Turtle (G. pseudogeographica) is known from the following river basins in Kansas: Kansas (Kansas [including the Solomon to Glen Elder Lake and Saline to Wilson Lake], the entire lengths of the Walnut, Caney, Verdigris, Fall, Neosho, and Spring rivers, and the upper Marais des Cygnes River). They have not been reported from much of the Marais des Cygnes River basin in Kansas.

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: Records mapped in Collins (1994) for Cloud, Butler, Geary, and Jackson counties are unknown and therefore not plotted. Records mapped in Collins (1994) for Sumner County (KU 20519) are too imprecise to plot (county only).

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: The Northern Map turtle is known from the Marais des Cygnes, Verdigris, and Caney drainage systems in eastern Kansas. This species inhabits slow-moving stretches and backwaters of rivers, streams, and lakes.

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: A specimen exists for Scott County (CAS-SUA 19241) but is only given to the county, and therefore cannot be mapped precisely. The source of the records mapped by Collins (1993) from Jewell and Neosho counties cannot be determined and are not mapped.

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: The Ouachita Map Turtle (G. ouachitensis) is known from the following river basins in Kansas; Marais des Cygnes, Spring, Neosho, Verdigris, Fall, Walnut, and Arkansas/Pawnee [to Pawnee County]. There are localized populations along the Kansas River to Geary County.

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: The Pond Slider is a semi-aquatic turtle and found throughout much of Kansas (in all major river drainages). It is absent from the northwestern portion of the state and along the northern and western borders (except for four questionable records from Wallace County [AMNH 2670, KU 3258, and KU 3259 from 1911 and w/o specific locality and FHSM 13688 from 2007 which is mapped).

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: The River Cooter inhabits rivers, streams, watershed lakes, ponds, and lagoons in southeastern Kansas. It is known from the Marais des Cygnes, Neosho/Spring, Verdigris/Fall, Walnut, and lower Arkansas drainages.

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: Older records in Collins (1993) from Coffey County (KU 3017-20) are too imprecise to map, however, recent photographs turned in by Don Eccles lend support that this turtle may still exist there. Collins (1993) did not plot a 1912 record (USNM 55588) from Marion County and a 1925 record (KU 1918) from Stafford County.

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: The Alligator Snapping Turtle has been recorded from the Neosho, Verdigris, Walnut, and Arkansas River Basins in Kansas between 1885 and 1986. Records from Woods and Kay counties in Oklahoma indicate that this species may also be present in the Cimarron River and Arkansas River drainages, respectively (though Glass, 1949 felt that these wide sandy streams would not provide suitable habitat).

Venom: “No species are venomous.” (Great Plains Nature Center (cooperative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and City of Wichita); published by the Friends of the Great Plains Nature Center)

Range: Yellow Mud Turtles inhabit still to slow-moving aquatic situations with muddy bottoms, such as ponds, cattle tanks, lakes, and ditches. Well represented throughout the Arkansas River drainage and the western reaches of the Kansas River drainages.