Slow but Important.
By 溜池ゴロー (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL],
via Wikimedia Commons
Diet
The painted turtle hunts along water bottoms. It quickly juts its head into and out of vegetation to stir potential victims out into the open water, where they are pursued. Large prey it holds in its mouth and tears up with its forefeet. It also consumes plants and skims the surface of the water with its mouth open to catch small particles of food. Although all subspecies of painted turtle eat plants and animals, either alive or dead, their tendencies vary.
By: D. Gordon E. Robertson
derivative work: TCO (Raccoon,_female_after_washing_up.jpg)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
Predators
Painted turtles are most vulnerable to predators when young. Nests are frequently ransacked and the eggs eaten by garter snakes, crows, chipmunks, thirteen-lined ground and gray squirrels, skunks, groundhogs, raccoons, badgers, gray and red fox, and humans.The small and sometimes bite-size, numerous hatchlings fall prey to water bugs, bass, catfish, bullfrogs, snapping turtles, three types of snakes (copperheads, racers and water snakes), herons, rice rats, weasels, muskrats, minks, and raccoons. As adults, the turtles' armored shells protect them from many potential predators, but they still occasionally fall prey to alligators, ospreys, crows, red-shouldered hawks, bald eagles, and especially raccoons. Painted turtles defend themselves by kicking, scratching, biting, or urinating. In contrast to land tortoises, painted turtles can right themselves if they are flipped upside down.