Turtle Greetings

Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) - Walworth County, Wisconsin, USA

 

The small lake that these were seen in has one of the largest populations of turtles I have ever seen, walking the perimeter of the lake I must have seen over a 100 painted turtles. I stopped on shore to observe a few turtles and saw some interesting behavior, a 3rd turtle swam up and began stretching its neck out of the water towards the face of one of the basking turtles, it did this for several minutes took a break and then resumed its activity. At several points the basking turtle retracted its head back inside its shell but this did not dissuade the 3rd (persistent) turtle, my view was obstructed by the basking turtles shell but the turtles were so close that their snouts must have been touching or very close to it. I don't know what this behavior was, perhaps the 3rd turtle wanted the other to relinquish its basking spot or maybe some sort of mating behavior. In any case it was interesting to see. You can see the turtle in the water stretching to reach the basking turtle from the water in this shot.

 

 

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