The weather here in Columbia SC has been pretty crappy lately—cloudy and chilly. So when the sun finally came out and things warmed up, I wanted to spend a day outside, and made my way to the Congaree National Park. Although it is not a very large park, it is the biggest remaining tract of old-growth lowland forest in the eastern US. Some of the Bald Cypress and Loblolly Pines here are several hundred years old and well over 100 feet tall. The park itself is very recent, having been established in 2003.
For those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and am traveling around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I have visited. :)
And while puttering along the walkway, I found something that excited me—a Spotted Turtle. Yeh, OK, maybe a turtle doesn’t excite YOU, but for a reptile guy like me it was like finding a pot of gold. The Spotted Turtle, Clemmys guttata, ranges from eastern Canada all the way to northern Florida. But despite this wide geographic range, it is in serious danger. Since its preferred habitat—lowland forest—has been largely destroyed, the turtle is listed as “endangered” in Canada, and nearly all of the states where it occurs have also listed it as “threatened” or “endangered”. Currently, the Spotted Turtle is under consideration for a listing on the Endangered Species List. Despite a lifetime of wandering around in the woods of Pennsylvania, this is the first one I’ve ever seen in the wild, and I was very fortunate to see it. (I excitedly pointed it out to a few others who happened to be hiking by, but alas they didn’t seem to be too impressed with it.)
So, here are a few photos of the Spotted Turtle, and some other critters seen in the park.
I did let the Ranger at the Visitors Center know about my turtle find: she looked at my photos, got a description from me of where I saw it, and logged the sighting. She told me she had not seen any Spotted Turtles in the Park. I suppose the tourists must see them once in a while, but wouldn’t know what it is they are looking at.