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After the area’s beloved manatees, no animal in Citrus County can claim the title of local mascot quite like the cooter. Whether giving their name to a popular Inverness festival or seen sunning on local logs, rocks and shorelines, these little turtles have attracted a local following inversely proportional to their size.
Reptiles of Rivers and Ponds
The English word “cooter” comes from the African word “kuta” for turtle. Broadly defined, a cooter is a member of the Pseudemys genus of freshwater turtles, which includes the following species:
- P. alabamensis – The Alabama red-bellied turtle, found in Mobile Bay, Alabama;
- P. concinna – The river cooter, found in parts of Mexico, New Mexico, eastern Virginia and Florida;
- P. floridana – The common cooter or Florida cooter, found in coastal plain areas from Lousiana to Florida to North Carolina;
- P. gorzugi – The Rio Grande cooter, found in areas of Mexico and Texas;
- P. nelsoni – The Florida red-bellied turtle, found in Florida and southeast Georgia;
- P. peninsularis – The Peninsular cooter, found in peninsular Florida;
- P. rubriventris – The American red-bellied turtle, found from eastern Massachusetts and Central New Jersey to northeastern North Carolina;
- P. suwanniensis – The Suwannee cooter, found along the west coast of Central Florida; and
- P. texana – The Texas cooter, found in Texas.
As this list suggests, the types of cooter one is likely to find in the waterways in and around Citrus County are the river cooter, common cooter, Florida red-bellied cooter and the Suwannee cooter. But as is often the case with such closely related animals, the taxonomic lines between species can blur. Some sources list the Suwannee cooter as a subspecies of the river cooter (P. concinna suwanniensis), and the peninsular cooter is often grouped as a subspecies of common cooter (P. floridana peninsularis). Others state that Pseydemys is not really a genus at all, and that cooters should be placed under the Chrysemys grouping of snapping turtles.
With so much variation, it’s easy to see why most people point to a sunning turtle and just say, "That’s a cooter, all right!" Most cooters you encounter will be between 10 and 16 inches long in their carapace. The carapace of a cooter is the domed, oval upper part of the shell. Depending upon the species or subspecies, a cooter’s carapace can be black, brown, olive or a patterned combination. Flip a cooter over, and you will likely see that the plastron—the part of the shell that protects the turtle’s underside—is yellowish in color.
The external parts of both the carapace and the plastron are made of tough plates called scutes. These provide strong protection against all manner of assaults, especially when cooters draw their legs and head into their shells to hide from predators. A scute’s strength lies in its composition of fibrous beta-keratin proteins (not to be confused with the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene, which gives carrots their orange color). Keratins appear in the scales, hoofs, nails and hair of many other animals.
As with other turtles, the cooter’s shell is a permanent accessory; ribs and the vertebral column are fused with its inner layer. The shell is also functionally part of the skin, and the scutes are like giant, tougher versions of the scales that cover the rest of the body. Looking at the physical features that protrude from the shell, a cooter’s head, legs and small tail are generally blackish with yellow stripes.
Cooters share many common traits with other reptiles. For example, they are poikilothermic of varying temperature or “cold blooded” as referred to popularly if somewhat inaccurately). This causes them to be diurnal (active during the day), and cooters are commonly seen basking on logs in the ponds, rivers, springs and other aquatic environments where they live. Warmth from the sun helps cooters maintain their body temperature at a sufficiently high level. Another reptilian trait seen is their egg-laying form of reproduction. After mating in early spring, female cooters lay about 20 eggs in nests near the water. Two or three months later, tiny hatchlings will emerge.
Like manatees, cooters subsist mostly on aquatic vegetation, including such plants as water lettuce, water hyacinth, and hydrilla. Unlike manatees, cooters enjoy the occasional snack of crayfish, insects or worms, while remaining predominantly herbivorous animals.
In addition to their role in the freshwater ecosystems, cooters are commonly kept as pets. However, potential cooter keepers should be warned that the little turtle they take home can grow to over a foot long!
A Cooterriffic Family Event
Every October since 2004, the City of Inverness in Citrus County has hosted the Great American Cooter Festival, often called "CooterFest" by those who know and love it.
The 2007 festival attracted more than 10,000 people to a series of special events culminating on the weekend of October 27th–28th. Festivities included the cooter races, a triathlon, carnival rides, arts and crafts, a barbeque cook-off, the Cooterween costume contest and a performance by country singer Ryan Weaver. Two new events were also added: a Miss Cooter contest and a Cooter Idol singing competition.
The festival mascot, Sunny the Cooter, appears frequently at CooterFest activities and at area celebrations throughout the year. Miss Cooter also makes appearances both within Citrus County and at events throughout the state.
Don’t miss the event dubbed "a shell of a good time" by fans and "hilarious" by Comedy Central’s The Daily Show!
Cooter Links