Eastern Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys reticularia)

Chicken Turtle (Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina)
Chicken turtles are characterized by the netlike patterns on its carapace (top of shell) and its long and striped neck.  Vertical stripes run down the hind legs of these turtles.  The carapace is much longer than it is wide and ranges from olive to black in coloration.

Eastern Chicken Turtle Profile (Woods for Wildlife)
Most common in shallow, still water with abundant vegetation including cypress ponds, Carolina bays, shallow
ditches, borrow pits, and other shallow water areas that are surrounded by sandhills, pine flatwoods, or savannas.

Eastern Chicken Turtle (Virginia Herpetological Society)
The Chicken Turtle was officially listed as endangered under Virginia’s endangered species law on 1 October 1987. Predation by raccoons (Procyon lotor) and Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina), both abundant in the Seashore State Park, is probably the chief cause of mortality. Additional mortality is occasionally caused by vehicular traffic.

Chicken Turtle Species Profile (Savannah River Ecological Laboratory)
The chicken turtle hunts amidst aquatic vegetation for prey which includes aquatic insects, amphibian larvae, small fish, and especially crayfish. This species is among the most terrestrial of our turtles and nearly all males and some females leave the wetland each fall to spend the winter buried in the forest.

Eastern Chicken Turtle (Virginia DWR)
Beginning in early October, they will begin to leave their aquatic habitats to hibernate terrestrially. During the summer when their aquatic habitats begin to dry, Chicken Turtles will aestivate (temporary period of dormancy) in the surrounding forest and wait for the rains to refill the wetlands.