Native to the United States

Chicken turtle

Deirochelys reticularia

Subspecies: eastern, Florida and western chicken turtles
Data updated October 2026

Chicken turtle walking on land with its very long striped neck stretched out
Fig. 1 — An adult on land, with the extra-long striped neck that sets this turtle apart.
Top view of a chicken turtle shell showing the yellow netlike pattern
Fig. 2 — The shell is egg-shaped, widest near the back, with a yellow net pattern.

At a glance

A long-necked turtle of shallow, seasonal wetlands on the southeastern Coastal Plain. It spends long stretches on land in the forest around its ponds and is one of the few US turtles that nests in fall and winter.

01

Identification

The chicken turtle has an egg-shaped, fairly high shell that is widest over the hind legs. It is dark brown, olive or nearly black with a pale yellow netlike pattern, which is bold in young turtles and often fades in adults. The neck is very long and striped with yellow. The front legs carry a broad yellow stripe, and the backs of the hind legs show vertical black-and-yellow stripes. The lower shell is usually plain yellow, though western animals have dark marks along the seams.

  1. 01Very long neck. The striped neck is far longer than on most pond turtles.
  2. 02Net pattern. Thin yellow lines form a mesh over a dark shell, like a cast net.
  3. 03Striped legs. A wide yellow stripe on each front leg and vertical stripes on the rear of the hind legs, like striped pants.

Commonly confused with

Sliders and cooters have shorter necks and broader, flatter shells without the yellow mesh.

02

Size

02 in4 in6 in8 in10 in12 in Adult female · about 8 in (20 cm) shell

Adults usually measure about 6 to 9 inches (15–23 cm) in shell length, with females larger than males. Males have longer tails. The western subspecies is the smallest of the three.

03

Range & habitat

Shallow, plant-filled seasonal pond in a southeastern pine forest
Fig. 3 — Shallow, weedy ponds that dry out for part of the year are classic chicken turtle habitat.

Chicken turtles live on the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States, from southern Virginia and the Carolinas through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi to Florida, and west of the Mississippi River into Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. They are absent from the Piedmont and mountains. The eastern subspecies reaches the Florida Panhandle, the Florida chicken turtle lives on the peninsula, and the western chicken turtle lives west of the Mississippi.

They are picky about water. Most live in shallow, still, heavily vegetated wetlands that dry out for part of the year, such as seasonal ponds, marshes, sinkhole ponds and interdunal ponds. They usually avoid large permanent ponds, reservoirs, rivers and muddy water. When their wetland dries, they move into the surrounding forest, sometimes 150 meters (about 500 feet) or more from water.

State guides: Texas · Oklahoma · Florida

04

Diet & predators

Chicken turtles are mostly carnivores and hunt actively among underwater plants. Crayfish are a favorite, especially for large females. Young turtles and males eat many dragonfly and damselfly larvae and other aquatic insects, along with tadpoles and small fish. Adults of the western subspecies also eat a fair amount of plant matter.

Feeds on

  • Crayfish
  • Dragonfly and other aquatic insect larvae
  • Tadpoles and other amphibian larvae
  • Small fish and some plants

Preyed on by

Crayfish on a muddy pond bottom
Prey — crayfish.
Raccoon at the edge of a pond
Predator — raccoon.

05

Behavior & seasons

The chicken turtle is one of the most land-loving turtles in the Southeast, and it basks only now and then. Nearly all males and some females leave the wetland each fall to spend the winter buried in the forest floor, and during droughts they lie dormant on land instead of searching for new water. All that overland travel makes them vulnerable on roads.

Western chicken turtles are mainly active in water from about February to July, then move to upland sites and stay underground through late summer, fall and winter. The common name may come from the long neck, but an 1800s account said the turtle tasted “more like chicken” than cooters did.

06

Reproduction

Chicken turtles keep an unusual schedule. Mating happens underwater. In the east, nesting starts in late summer or early fall, slows during the coldest months, and picks up again in February and March. Clutches hold 2 to 19 eggs, averaging about 10, and females often lay two clutches a year. Eggs laid in late summer may sit in the nest through winter and hatch the next spring or later. The species grows and matures fast for a turtle: in Virginia, maturity comes in about two years, while western males mature at 2 to 4 years and females at 6 to 8.

07

Conservation

The chicken turtle is not federally listed. It is fairly common in parts of the Southeast but is listed as endangered in Virginia, where only two isolated populations are known. The western subspecies was petitioned for Endangered Species Act listing in 2010 and received a positive 90-day finding in 2011; a 2023 USFWS fact sheet says the agency is conducting a deeper review, with a 12-month finding scheduled for 2025. Draining of seasonal wetlands, loss of the upland forest around them, road deaths and the pet trade are the main threats. US endangered reptiles

Keep reading

Sources

Data updated October 2026 · How we build these pages