ID please

[Phreeflow]

This little fella popped up at a local shelter and I was considering giving it a home but neither the shelter or I know what species it is. i wanna make sure we can provide the proper care before adopting.

Can anyone please ID it?

 

[Toddrickfl1]

Can you get any better pictures of the plastron/carapace. I'm pretty sure it's not a tortoise it's a water turtle but hard to tell what kind from picture. @Markw84

 

[Phreeflow]

Can you get any better pictures of the plastron/carapace. I'm pretty sure it's not a tortoise it's a water turtle but hard to tell what kind from picture. @Markw84

Thanks for the response. That’s the only picture the shelter provided. I haven’t gone out to look at it as I’d like to know what it is first.

It’s listed as a turtle but I was wondering if it could a tortoise die to the shape of the head. Could it be a type of box turtle?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Is it a Musk turtle?

 

[Toddrickfl1]

No it's not a box Turtle.

 

[Yvonne G]

Without seeing better pictures I'm guessing it's probably Actinemys marmorata, which is protected in its native range and illegal to own.

 

[Phreeflow]

Hmmm…never heard of that species before Yvonne. It’s good to have experts. I did look up pics and it does indeed look similar but the the pics I saw seemed to lack the blotches of yellow on the shell.

Could it possibly be a musk turtle like Zeropilot suggests?

 

[Markw84]

It is definitely not a musk turtle. It does look like a Northern Pacific Pond Turtle Actinemys marmorata. Where are you located in California? Northern? I've seen many northerns (marmorata) that have a lot of the lighter brown in the shell like that. The picture is a bad angle and distorts the shape of the head somewhat.

I'm 95% sure that is what it is. Native to California and illegal to own

 

[Phreeflow]

I’m in SoCal and that’s a listing at a local animal shelter. You figure they’d know what they’re listing. Anyways, glad I asked the forum…I’ll be passing on it. Thx all