Differentiating Male and Female Clemmys guttata (Spotted Turtles)

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Differentiating Male and Female Clemmys guttata (Spotted Turtles) - Chris Tabaka DVM

This is a species has been appearing in fair numbers over the past year or so both as wild caught individuals and as captive hatched specimens. It is relatively straightforward in terms of sexing.

An original World Chelonian Trust care sheet can be found at: Spotted Turtles (Clemmys guttata) - Darrell Senneke and Andy Snider (Curator of Reptiles - Detroit Zoo)

http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/Cguttatacare.htm

Pictured below are two adult spotted turtles. The animal on the left is a female. She can be distinguished by her thin elongated tail, the opening of her cloaca near the base of her tail, and her flat plastron. The male on the right has an extremely thick tail, a concave plastron, and his cloacal opening is nearer the tip of the tail than the base of the tail.

Again, note the thin long tail in the female on the left and the thick tail and plastron concavity in the male on the right

. In the pictures below, note the cloacal opening past the edge of the carapace as well as the thick stumpy tail in the male on the left. In the female on the right, note the cloacal opening right at the margin of the carapace as well as the long, thin tail .