Herpetofauna: One Life's List

Chrysemys picta marginata
Midland Painted Turtle

Johnson Co., Illinois
May 19, 2001

My first marginata was far from any water - it was laying eggs in the middle of a trail a hundred feet or more up a steep, rocky slope, far from any water.  Why some turtles travel so far to lay their eggs is a mystery to me - is it to disperse the young, or to hide them from predators, or some other reason?

The turtle at right was photographed at a small lake near my house in central Illinois.