The Western Pond Turtle is a native freshwater turtle of the Pacific Coast from Washington to Baja California. It inhabits aquatic habitats with refugia and has an omnivorous diet, but must ingest food in water. Many populations are small, isolated groups of 20 or fewer individuals separated by miles. It is also known as the Pacific Pond Turtle and is the only native freshwater turtle of the North American Pacific Coast west of the Sierra-Cascades divide.

1. Western Pond Turtle
Michael Wutsch

2.  Eukarya
 Animalia
 Chordata
 Reptilia
 Testudines
 Emydidae
 Actinemys or Emys
 A. marmorata

3.  This species has been in the
western United States since at
least the late Pliocene
 Habitat ranged from extreme
western Washington and British
Columbia to northern Baja
California, mostly to the west of
the Cascade-Sierra crest.
 Aquatic habitat with refugia

4.  They are unable to
swallow food in the air;
they must ingest their
prey in the water
 Omnivorous diet
includes adult and larval
aquatic insects, terrestrial
grasshoppers and aerial
flies off the water's
surface, beetles, fish,
worms, and more

5. Population
 Many turtle populations have 20 individuals or
less and are separated from each other by
several miles.

6.  Also known as the Pacific pond turtle or
Pacific mud turtle
 Only fresh-water turtle native to the North
American Pacific Coast west of the Sierra-
Cascade divide, with the exception of the
Sonoran mud turtle

7.  Also known as:
 Actinemys marmota
 Clemmys marmorata
 Emys marmorata

8.  http://www.blm.gov/ca/pdfs/cdd_pdfs/cle
mmys1.PDF
 http://www.jstor.org/pss/3802535
 http://www.atlantismagazine.com/bettelheim
/pondturtle.html
 http://www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/living_
with/docs/turtles.pdf
