SREL Reprint #3404

Kinosternon subrubrum (Bonnaterre 1789) - Eastern Mud Turtle

Walter E. Meshaka, Jr.1, J. Whitfield Gibbons2, Daniel F. Hughes3, Michael W. Klemens4,
and John B. Iverson5

1State Museum of Pennsylvania, 300 North Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120 USA
2Savannah River Ecology Lab, Drawer E, Aiken, South Carolina 29802 USA
3University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas 79968 USA
4Department of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History,
Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York 10024 USA
5Department of Biology, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana 47374 USA

Summary: The Eastern Mud Turtle, Kinosternon subrubrum (Family Kinosternidae), is a small (carapace length 85 to 120 mm) polytypic species of the eastern and central United States. All three historically recognized subspecies (K. s. subrubrum, K. s. steindachneri, and K. s. hippocrepis) are semi-aquatic turtles that inhabit much of the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. The Florida taxon (K. s. steindachneri) appears to represent a distinct species, but we continue to treat it as a subspecies for the purposes of this account. Nesting seasons are shorter and clutch sizes (range: 1–8, modal: 2–3 eggs) larger in northern populations of the species, with up to four clutches annually in the South. Populations vary greatly in size and may comprise only a small segment or major portion of an aquatic turtle assemblage. Population declines are well documented in the Northeast and Midwest (K. s. subrubrum). Major threats to this species come from the disruption or destruction of freshwater and surrounding terrestrial habitats as well as road mortality, but it is not considered globally threatened at this time.

SREL Reprint #3404

Meshaka, J., W.E., J. W. Gibbons, D. F. Hughes, M. W. Klemens, and J. B. Iverson. 2017. Kinosternon subrubrum (Bonnaterre 1789) - Eastern Mud Turtle. In: Rhodin, A. G. J., Iverson, J. B., van Dijk, P. P., Buhlmann, K. A., Pritchard, P. C. H., and Mittermeier, R. A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs 5(10): 101.1-16.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).