Northern Painted Turtles can be found throughout much of the northern two-thirds of the United States from coast to coast and south from the Midwestern states to the Gulf of Mexico.  In Nebraska it can be found statewide in nearly any permanent aquatic habitat. 

Often the first turtles to be seen basking in spring, Northern Painted Turtles are active from the first warm days of March through mid-October.  They can usually be seen piled on logs, rocks, and even on top of each other as they warm up in the sun.  Mating occurs in early spring and in fall.  Females excavate egg chambers and deposit eggs by mid-summer.  Eggs hatch by early fall, but hatchlings nearly always overwinter and do not emerge from the nest until the following spring.  Eggs that do not hatch by fall cannot survive the winter.  Northern Painted Turtles are omnivorous.  They eat the roots and leaves of submerged vegetation, invertebrates, fish, and tadpoles.  Females may be encountered on land while searching for a proper site for egg-laying.  In some cases, it is far from water.  Males will also traverse long distances over land. Any body of water in Nebraska can be considered habitat for the Northern Painted Turtle.  Although they are more at home in permanent ponds and lakes with abundant aquatic vegetation, they are at home in slow-moving streams.  They also inhabit Nebraska’s larger rivers such as the Missouri, Niobrara, Platte, and Republican rivers.  However, they are more commonly found in oxbow lakes and pools adjacent to these rivers.