Type of Shell: Hard & Flattened

Reproduction: 5-15 eggs per clutch, several clutches per year.

Western Chicken Turtles are found throughout the Eastern half of Texas, most of Louisiana, Southeastern Oklahoma, Southeastern corner of Missouri, Eastern & Southern Arkansas and the Northwestern part of Mississippi. The Eastern and the Florida Chicken Turtles are the other two subspecies of Chicken Turtles. The Eastern subspecies are found in Southeastern U.S. And the Florida Chicken Turtle are found in most of Florida, except for the extreme Northern parts.

Chicken turtles live in lakes, ponds, marshes and cypress swamps. They are often found in seasonal wetlands, and will travel in search of new bodies of water when their current pools dry up. This habit causes high mortalities when they cross roads in search of water.

Chicken Turtles range from 4 to 11 inches, with males being smaller than females.

They are named for their long necks, aka "chicken necked." As with many other species of turtles, this species becomes less carnivorous as they become older. Their latin genus name means "humped turtle", the species name means "netlike" and the subspecies name means "stained" (Ernst & Barbour 1989).

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