Turtles of Alabama

286 Pages·2015·5.8 MB·English

by  Craig Guyer

Turtles
OF ALABAMA
Philip Henry Gosse as a
young man of twenty-nine,
the year of his return to
England from Alabama,
painted by his brother,
William Gosse. (1839,
watercolor on ivory, courtesy
of the National Portrait
Gallery—London)
ADVISORY PANEL Dr. Gary R. Mullen, Entomology, Auburn University (Emeritus)
Dr. L. J. Davenport, Botany, Samford University
Elberta Gibbs Reid, Birmingham Audubon Society
Dr. E. O. Wilson, Zoology, Harvard University (Emeritus)
INAUGURAL SPONSORS Birmingham Audubon Society
Mary Carolyn Gibbs Boothby
Lida Inge Hill

Fay Belt Ireland
Henry S. Lynn Jr.
Medical Management Plus, Inc.
Dr. Connie S. and Dr. James A. Pittman Jr.
Elberta Gibbs Reid
Frances B. and James W. Shepherd
Becky H. and William E. Smith Jr.
Virginia B. and William M. Spencer III
Ann A. and Donald B. Sweeney Jr.
Dr. Cameron M. and Judge J. Scott Vowell
Alice M. and N. Thomas Williams
Harriett Harton Wright
Louise A. and John N. Wrinkle
Philip Henry Gosse (1810–1888) was an English naturalist and
illustrator who spent eight months of 1838 on the Alabama frontier,
teaching planters’ children in Dallas County and studying the native
flora and fauna. Years after returning to England, he published the
now-classic Letters from Alabama: Chiefly Relating to Natural History,
with twenty-nine important black-and-white illustrations included.
He also produced, during his Alabama sojourn, forty-nine remarkable
watercolor plates of various plant and animal species, mainly insects,
now available in Philip Henry Gosse: Science and Art in “Letters from
Alabama” and “Entomologia Alabamensis.”
The Gosse Nature Guides are a series of natural history
guidebooks prepared by experts on the plants and animals of
Alabama and designed for the outdoor enthusiast and ecology
layman. Because Alabama is one of the nation’s most biodiverse
states, its residents and visitors require accurate, accessible field
guides to interpret the wealth of life that thrives within the state’s
borders. The Gosse Nature Guides are named to honor Philip
Henry Gosse’s early appreciation of Alabama’s natural wealth
and to highlight the valuable legacy of his recorded observations.
Look for other volumes in the Gosse Nature Guides series
at http://uapress.ua.edu.
The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa
Turtles
OF ALABAMA
CRAIG GUYER
MARK A. BAILEY
ROBERT H. MOUNT
with line drawings by CLAIRE L. FLOYD
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
uapress.ua.edu
Copyright © 2015 by the University of Alabama Press
All rights reserved.
Inquiries about reproducing material from this work
should be addressed to the University of Alabama Press.
Typeface: Scala Pro and Scala Sans Pro
Manufactured in China
Cover photograph: Adult female Northern Map Turtle,
Graptemys geographica; courtesy of Alan Cressler
Cover and interior design: Michele Myatt Quinn
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the min-
imum requirements of American National Standard for
Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the
Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-0-8173-5806-8
E-ISBN: 978-0-8173-8817-1
Publication made possible in part by generous donations
from Gary R. Mullen, in memorial to his friend George
W. Folkerts, and Carole Sommers, in memorial to her
friend Mary Ward Brown.
Yet, quiet and apparently desolate as this somber lake is, it is the
congenial home of some animals, and those not to be despised by
man. It is true, if you approach noisily, kicking the stumps and break-
ing the twigs, you see nothing; nor will you be any the wiser if you
move about the brink talking and laughing. But sit down on a log a
few paces within the shadow of the forest, and remain quite silent,
keeping your eyes on the surface of the pool, and especially on the
fallen trunks that project from it. In a few minutes a little black head
peeps from the mantle of green incumbent weed, and a Tortoise
creeps noiselessly out, and takes up his position on one of the rotten
logs. Glance over the pool; every log is tenanted by one or more of the
same silent reptiles, not one of which was there a moment ago. But
lo! While you look, another and another and another—nay, scores are
crawling up upon the logs, so that in a quarter of an hour you may
count them by the hundreds, and others are still rising. They are of
various sizes; some are as large as the crown of your hat, others are
tiny creatures, not bigger that a half-crown piece, and of all intermedi-
ate dimensions.
—Philip Henry Gosse, Letters from Alabama, Letter IV (Dallas
County, June 10, 1838)

Contents
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
The Turtle Fauna of Alabama 2
Indigenous Species 2
Introduced Species 4
Taxonomic Changes and Problems 5
Climate of Alabama 6
Alabama Geography 7
River Basins 7
Important Geographic Units 14
Species Accounts 17
Keys 17
Names 18
Photographs 18
Descriptions 18
Alabama Distribution 18
Habits 19
Conservation and Management 19
Taxonomy 20