Andrea ColtonViews:
The First Signs of Trouble
While this Spotted Turtle season started off strong in South Carolina, the rest of the season turned into a desperate struggle for water. The Southeast has been experiencing varying levels of drought for nearly a year now, with the worst conditions hitting southern Georgia and Florida. Back in December, I ventured to Florida to check out new survey sites for 2026. My initial plan was to trap for a week, but the site I had expected to hold water was bone dry.
When conditions are dry, I usually target sites with at least some deeper, more permanent water bodies, such as creeks, ditches, or ponds. Deep and channelized areas tend to retain water when conditions are scarce, and I knew this site had large ponds to the east. After searching the more promising wetlands without success, I headed over to those ponds only to find they were completely dry as well. It was an omen of how the 2026 season would shape up.
Dry Conditions Make Already-Cryptic Turtles Harder to Find
It was a miracle that some South Carolina sites still had water, and even those were hit or miss. Some sites with deep cypress swamp and river floodplain habitat were dry, while other, shallower and more ephemeral spots managed to retain what little rain they had received over the winter. Even so, most were dry by the end of March.
Our window for Spotted Turtle trapping is already relatively short, lasting from February through May, though we often struggle with low water levels by May even in a good year. That’s the nature of the wetlands Spotted Turtles inhabit. Shallow, non-permanent bodies of water prevent the establishment of aquatic predators while offering an abundance of food for Spotteds. Once these wetlands dry up, turtles hunker down in leaf litter until the next significant rainfall event or seasonal accumulation of water.
Where the Water — and at Least Some Wildlife — Remained
My technicians struggled to find water from the moment they started in February and March. Traps often went into drying ponds, shallow puddles, creeks, and wetlands on the verge of disappearing. Sometimes, the last traps didn’t get set until the following day because they ran out of daylight while searching for water.
I didn’t fare much better in Georgia and experienced utter heartbreak at one site that had a beautiful, long stretch of wetland that I’m convinced holds Spotted Turtles. This site was drier than most, however, and I only managed to set seven traps. Two went on either side of a culvert that clearly channels a much higher volume of water during wetter periods. The other five went into scattered puddles throughout a dried-up swamp that, in retrospect, were likely alligator holes.
Spotted Turtles aren’t the only reptiles that enter a period of dormancy when temperatures rise and water disappears. When swamps dry up, alligators will bury themselves in mud and create small, lingering pools of water. The baby alligators I caught in one of my traps on the final day were enough evidence for me that I had, in fact, set traps near dormant alligators.
On the bright side, plenty of other reptiles and amphibians were active at this site, including Musk Turtles, Yellow-bellied Sliders, Green Treefrogs, Greenhouse Frogs, watersnakes, a ribbon snake, and a Pygmy Rattlesnake that sat in the same sunny patch beside the road every morning I arrived.
Difficulties Extend to Long-Term Sites
Even our long-term sites suffered this year. Our primary long-term site in South Carolina is a large swamp that is usually deeper than the habitat I typically associate with Spotted Turtles. Turtles there tend to inhabit shallow, isolated wetlands or the margins of the larger contiguous swamp.
For our last survey stint, we had to settle for three days of visual searches only. Water that had been deep enough to trap just two weeks earlier had completely dried up. It’s remarkable how quickly wetlands can lose water, especially once surrounding vegetation begins to green in spring.
Our visual surveys mainly consisted of trekking through mud from puddle to puddle, and we were even able to walk all the way to the edge of the swamp’s “lake.” In this context, lakes are areas of the swamp that typically retain water year-round. While we saw plenty of Musk Turtles and Cottonmouths, along with a Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Spotted Turtles eluded us.
A Different Kind of Wetland
We do have one site in Georgia that consistently produces turtles. Interestingly, this site has been altered by development and beaver activity in ways that allow it to retain water more consistently throughout the year. We’ve even caught turtles there in the fall.
Clearly, turtles at this site are able to remain active for longer periods compared to turtles inhabiting more ephemeral wetlands. Hopefully, continued monitoring of this site and others will help shed light on how habitat alteration affects this species, especially if drought patterns worsen or persist in the coming years.
