When You're Hot, Your Not------A Male.

With the daylight hours decreasing with each passing day this Painted Turtle crawled out of the water onto sandy soil and turned facing directly into the sun in order to warm it's cooled carapace.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, comes a member of the local paparazzi, sits on the ground next to him and starts with the photographs.  Jeeze!!

While Painted Turtles bask in the sun to warm their bodies it is also the sun's warmth that determines the sex of the un-hatched turtles during the second of the three embryo development periods which take place in the underground nest.  Painted turtle eggs warmed and incubated around 74 deg. will generally be males and eggs incubated around 80 deg. will generally become females.  Differences of the egg positions in the nest assures an even balance of males and females.

Photographs at Bowman Lake, Fox Island County Park.