Kinosternon flavescens
Silhouette: Jose Carlos Arenas-Monroy · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The yellow mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens), also commonly known as the yellow-necked mud turtle, is a species of mud turtle in the family Kinosternidae. The species is endemic to the Central United States and Mexico.
Northeastern Mexico: Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. Midwestern and Southwestern United States: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Its current presence is uncertain in Veracruz (Mexico) and Arkansas (United States).
The yellow mud turtle is a small, olive-colored turtle. Both the common name, yellow mud turtle, and the specific name, flavescens (Latin: yellow), refer to the yellow-colored areas on the throat, head, and sides of the neck. The bottom shell (plastron) is yellow to brown with two hinges, allowing the turtle to close each end separately. The male's tail has a blunt spine on the end, but the female's tail does not.
The yellow mud turtle can live for more than 40 years. Yellow mud turtles are omnivorous. Their diet includes worms, crayfish, frogs, snails, fish, fairy shrimp, slugs, leeches, tadpoles, and other aquatic... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow Mud Turtle sighting in Austin on a given day, based on 15 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 35th most-seen of the 37 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow Mud Turtle in Austin on a given day, against under 5% in August–October and December–June, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow Mud Turtle sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Austin, in our data
Austin is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Yellow Mud Turtle sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow Mud Turtle is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Austin (15 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
