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Florida Cooter

Florida Cooter line art illustration (click image to enlarge)

Florida Cooter full color illustration (click image to enlarge)

Artist's notes:

The Florida Cooter was completed on 4/13/2009. When I was hiking in the Big Cypress National Preserve I saw these beautiful reptiles basking on logs here and there. They are really cool little (ok, so not so little) turtles and it really was a lot of fun to draw. The illustration is based on a photo by Mark Harris.

Information about the Florida Cooter:

Florida Cooters, also called the Coastal Plains turtle, range Alabama in the west to Virginia in the east, including nearly all of the state of Florida and southern Georgia. They are the most frequently seen turtle in Florida's waterways. They are generally found in wetlands, marshes and forest ponds as they prefer still waters with soft bottoms and basking sites. It is a medium-sized turtle reaching about 13" long that feeds generally on aquatic vegetation. It is one of twenty-five turtle species that live in Florida.