The stinkpot is an omnivorous animal, meaning it dines on plants and meat. The majority of items on a stinkpot's diet are small animals such as aquatic insects, arachnids, crustaceans, fish, snails and tadpoles. Underwater vegetation and algae are two forms of plants stinkpots regularly eat. Occasionally, stinkpots feed on the carrion -- or dead animal carcasses -- of fish and crustaceans.
Stinkpots spend most of their time in freshwater habitats, including ponds and slow-moving streams. The turtles forage for food in the substrate --- a collection of gravel and stones --- at the bottom of their aquatic environments. Stinkpots also use substrate for hibernation, but will only lay their eggs on dry land. Native to the United States, stinkpots live throughout the eastern half of the United States. This turtle's range extends as far north as New England and the Upper Midwest to Southern states such as Florida and Texas. Some stinkpot populations live in Ontario, Canada.
Like most turtle species, stinkpots do not have teeth for chewing food. However, the mouths of stinkpots have sharp edges, which enable them to cut up meat and vegetation. A stinkpot's feet has claws to help dig through substrate and grasp prey. The turtles' webbed feet assist them with swimming and pursuing mobile prey such as fish and aquatic insects. (see References 3) Stinkpots also use their relatively small size and keeled, or ridged, shell to camouflage themselves in substrate, where they lie in wait for prey.
Stinkpots have three relatives in the genus Sternotherus: razor-backed, Sternotherus carinatus; flattened, Sternotherus depressus and loggerhead, Sternotherus minor, musk turtles. All three of the stinkpot's relatives share the turtle's choice in aquatic habitats and have similar tastes in omnivorous diets. Loggerhead and razor-back musk turtles live throughout the Southeast United States, while flattened musk turtles are only found in Alabama's Black Warrior River System. Stinkpots are the second-largest species in the Sternotherus genus, only behind the razor-backed musk turtle --- which grows to between 5 to 6 inches.