Hi everyone, and welcome back to Curious By Nature.
My name is Airen and today's we're going to learn about river habitats
while feeding our spotted turtles, August and October.
Let's get started.
We are at the Mysteries of the Marsh and we are taking a peek at our spotted turtles.
Spotted turtles are a native species to Illinois.
They are an endangered species, so these two are our animal ambassadors.
We have August and October.
They live in a very specific habitat in the Mysteries of the Marsh exhibit here at the Nature Museum,
they have a moving waterway and a basking rock.
So, spotted turtles are always going to be found in water or near a source of water.
Usually, steams, wet prairies, wetlands of many kinds, creeks, and rivers.
So some of the features of a spotted turtle is number one, their spots.
They're kind of decorated in these yellow splashes.
They're going to grow more of those as they get older,
and since we're talking about their shells and looking at these polka dots they have,
does anyone know the name for the top part of a turtle's shell?
It's got a funny name.
The top part of a turtle's shell is called the carapace and their bottom shell,
they do have shells on their belly, too.
Does anyone know the name for the belly shell of a turtle?
It's also a funny name.
The belly shell is called the plastron.
So plastrons are shells that protect their bellies and a carapace is the top part of
the shell that protects them from above.
These two turtles, August and October, are also kind of showing off their feet.
Their feet tell us a lot about where they live.
You can see that there's some claws.
Turtles do have claws like other animals.
They have webbed toes, so they've got a bit of skin that connects all their toes
if they splay them out.
These act like paddles in the water.
Another feature I want to talk about for these spotted turtles are their mouths.
Has anyone ever seen turtle teeth?
That's a tricky question.
They do not have turtle teeth at all.
There's no such thing as a turtle tooth.
Instead, they have beaks.
Really similar to have a parrot has a beak, it's a very powerful tool.
It can grasp anything, cut into anything, and hold in moving prey.
So a beak is an excellent tool for a turtle to have and for omnivores to have.
So today the turtles are going to be using their beaks to bite down on some of their
favorite food, the mealworm, but in the wild they could use them on tadpoles, cranberries,
anything they might find in the water.
While I'm feeding the spotted turtles, I do want you to take a close look again at those
powerful beaks they have.
You'll se how they kind of clamp on.
And then they'll take that mealworm into the water, so I might feed those worms to these
turtles above the surface, but they will take the worm into the water and then swallow it there,
because the water actually helps these turtles swallow their food.
So if any of you have gone swimming in a pool or a lake or the ocean and noticed that
you can jump a lot higher when you're underwater than you could on land,
the same kind of concept, or same idea, happens here with these turtles.
Whoops, there one goes into the water, and that is a-okay, because that allows them to
practice their hunting skills and you saw it looks like August took care of that worm
that was in the water fairly easily.
And here's that beak really working to catch this worm.
There they go, and they take it underneath the surface of the water again.
You'll notice during the feeding that they can be very fast when they want to be.
I've seen a lot of cartoons and a lot of movies in which turtles move very, very slowly.
If you're a turtle and you're swimming around in your creek or your stream and you notice
food going by very quickly, you want to be just as fast so that you can catch it
and have some lunch.
When they need to be, turtles can go very quick.
That's our show for today and thank you so much for joining us.
I hope you enjoyed the animal feeding with August and October,
and be sure to leave any comments or questions below.
And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
We'll see you back here next time on Curious By Nature.