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Testudines · EmydidaeEntry 7,619 of 21,572
Blanding's Turtle, Emydoidea blandingii

Reptilia · Testudines

Emydoidea blandingiiHolbrook, 1838

Blanding's Turtle

Photograph by Andrew C, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons

A water-living, active by day or night, omnivorous turtle from the Nearctic region, reaching 26 cm across the shell.

Reptilia › Testudines › Emydidae › Emydoidea

Grows to
255mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Omnivorous
Active
Cathemeral
Lives up to
77years
Shell length across Emydidae

Longer than only 46% of all species in Emydidae anyone has measured.

46% of 37 species are smaller54% larger
94 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest400 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because shell length here runs from 94 to 400 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

29 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Conservation status
Endangered
Population trend
Decreasing

The animal itself

Colour on the back
Yellow
Pattern on the back
Blotched
Pupil
Round
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
77years
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
24.53°C76 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
17.26–40.65°C63–105 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Shell length, front to back · greatest recorded
255mm10 in

straight carapace length, measured in a line rather than over the curve

Body mass · greatestcomputed
1162g2.6 lb

largely converted from length by allometry in the source

Body mass · a typical adult
1162g2.6 lb

AnAge rates this record "acceptable"

Body mass at hatching
12.2g0.43 oz

How it lives

Diet
Omnivorous

Amphibians, invertebrates, fish, plants

How it hunts
Active foraging
Active
Cathemeral
Where it lives
Aquatic
Habitat
Grassland, Shrubland, Wetlands
Region
Nearctic

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Sex decided by
Temperature
Average clutch
9.6eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
5–12eggs
Age at first breeding · female
6500days

Naming and history

Subspecies
No
Described by
Holbrook
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1838

Keeping one

Blanding's Turtle is assessed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.

No enclosure size is given here

The standard sets enclosure size for turtles and tortoises genus by genus, and this genus is not among the roughly sixty it lists. No figure is given rather than one borrowed from a different animal.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 76 °F (24.5 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

104kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 1,162 g, the heaviest recorded for Blanding's Turtle — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • — Still living
  • — Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
  • — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
  • — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • — Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • — Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • — Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • — Largest female · snout to vent
  • — Largest male · snout to vent
  • — Largest female · shell length
  • — Largest male · shell length
  • — Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • — Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • — Largest juvenile · shell length
  • — Egg length
  • — Egg width
  • — Body mass · adult female, mean
  • — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • — Eats arthropods
  • — Eats vertebrates
  • — Eats plant matter
  • — How the young develop
  • — Gestation or incubation
  • — Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • — Mean clutch · largest reported
  • — Clutches in a year
  • — Clutches a year · fewest
  • — Clutches a year · most
  • — First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • — First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • — Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • — Mature from · youngest recorded
  • — Mature by · oldest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • — Limbs
  • — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • — Red List criteria
  • — Biome
  • — Active season · shortest recorded
  • — Active season · longest recorded
  • — Density · lowest recorded
  • — Density · highest recorded
  • — Home range · largest recorded
  • — Suborder
  • — Infraorder
  • — Type locality
  • — Active in
  • — Mainland or island
  • — Lowest it lives · above sea level
  • — Highest it lives · above sea level
  • — Range size

Others in Emydidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Emydoidea blandingii. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/emydoidea-blandingii

@misc{emydoidea_blandingii_2026,
  title  = {Emydoidea blandingii},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/emydoidea-blandingii}
}

Sources

  1. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  2. AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.