{"id":20411,"date":"2017-05-09T06:49:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T13:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=20411"},"modified":"2017-05-09T06:49:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T13:49:24","slug":"painted-plastron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=20411","title":{"rendered":"Painted plastron"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Our only local turtle is the Painted Turtle, but why call it that?<\/p>\n<p>After all, a view of these creatures basking on a loafing log shows a carapace of gun-metal grey &#8212; hardly something that invites the appellation, <em>painted<\/em>. However, it isn&#8217;t the carapace (dorsal shell) that earns the name, but the plastron\u00a0(ventral shell).<\/p>\n<p>But, just try to see it.<\/p>\n<p>Illustrations of the multi-coloured surface I have seen show an upside-down turtle held in a human hand. Such a view\u00a0is not compatible with my watch-but-don&#8217;t-touch style of observing. Consequently, I have yet to see\u00a0our turtle&#8217;s complete plastron.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, now and then, one does get a peek.<\/p>\n<p>Seen from the back and top, the carapace of the Painted Turtle is gunmetal grey.<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-20413\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/paintedturtle170507bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>However, seen from the front, when the turtle tips up, there is a hint of a variegated plastron.\u00a0<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-20412\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/paintedturtle170507cs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When a turtle is climbing onto a loafing log, the base of its plastron reveals the appropriateness\u00a0of its name: Painted Turtle.<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-20414\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/paintedturtle170507as2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Our only local turtle is the Painted Turtle, but why call it that? After all, a view of these creatures basking on a loafing log shows a carapace of gun-metal grey &#8212; hardly something that invites the appellation, painted. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=20411\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-herptiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20411"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20429,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20411\/revisions\/20429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}