Northern Red-Bellied Cooters Head Start Program

Although they can be confused with the common painted turtle, endangered red-bellied cooters are only found in coastal plain ponds in the Plymouth County area.

The Science Center is the temporary home of four hatchling red-bellied cooters. The hatchlings are taken from their nest in late summer by the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program staff and marked for identification purposes. The turtles are then given to participating science centers for care.

Our job is to provide them with constant heat and food - all the romaine or red/green leaf lettuce they can eat.  This will help the red-bellies to grow continually throughout the winter.  By late spring their top shell (carapace) will be 5-6" long.  In the wild it would take the little guys 4-5 years to reach that size!

Hatchling red-bellied cooters are eaten by other species in the wild such as birds, raccoons, and skunks.  Our cooters will be returned to the Natural Heritage and Endangered Program in early June and released back to their natural home pond.  They will be much larger and more able to protect themselves because we have given them a good "head start" on life!

South Shore Natural Science Center

P.O. Box 429

48 Jacobs Lane

Norwell, MA 02061

phone: 781-659-2559; fax: 781-659-5924

ssnsc@comcast.net