Range in California: Red
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Introduced - not native to California
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Adult, Travis County, Texas |
Adults in city park lake, San Francisco County |
Captive adult, courtesy of Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History |
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Captive adult, Marin County,
courtesy of Tim Burkhardt |
Adult in city park,
San Francisco County |
Adult, King County, Washington |
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| Carapace |
Plastron |
Adult, Bastrop County, Texas |
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| Adult, Travis County, Texas |
Characteristic Red stripe behind eye |
Adult, Travis County, Texas |
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| Adults, Cameron County, Texas |
Habitat, irrigation canal,
Sacramento County |
Habitat, pond, Contra Costa County |
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Habitat, city park lake,
San Francisco County |
Habitat, large lake, Sacramento County |
Habitat, Contra Costa County |
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More Pictures of this turtle and its habitat:
Northwest Herps
Texas Herps |
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| Description |
| Size |
| 3.5 - 14.5 inches in shell length (8.9 - 36.8 cm). (Stebbins 2003) |
| Appearance |
A medium to large freshwater turtle with a weekly-keeled oval carapace and a prominent broad reddish stripe behind the eye. (Occasionally this stripe is missing.) The carapace is olive, brown, or black with streaks and bars of yellow or eye-like spots. Sometimes the yellow markings are obscured and the shell appears black. The rear of the carapace has a jagged, saw-toothed edge. The unhinged plastron is yellow with dark markings. The skin is green to olive brown with yellow stripes, including many narrow yellow stripes on the limbs.
Males are darker than females, especially as they age, with long nails on the front feet, and long thick tails. Young turtles are green with yellow streaks and many eye-like spots. |
| Behavior and Natural History |
| Diurnal. Highly aquatic. Basks out of the water on banks, rocks, logs, or other exposed objects, often in large groups, and sometimes stacked one upon another. Becomes dormant during the cold of winter, but able to remain active throughout the year in the south on sunny winter days. |
| Diet |
| Eats invertebrates, crustaceans, mollusks, fish, insects, snails, tadpoles, and aquatic plants. Young are primarily carnivorous, but consume progressively larger amounts of vegetation as they mature. |
| Reproduction |
| Females become sexually mature in 2 - 5 years. In its native habitat, breeding takes place from March to June. Females dig a nest in open unshaded areas on land in soil that is not muddy and lay 1 - 3 clutches of 2 - 25 eggs between April and July. Females may move a considerable distance from the water to find a suitable nest site and can sometimes be seen crossing roads in the breeding season. Hatchlings emerge in 2.5 months and sometimes spend the winter in the nest. |
| Range |
Introduced throughout California, especially in populated areas, primarily as a result of the release of pets by negligent owners. This is a good example of the importance of carefully considering the long term care of a pet before acquiring it. Red-eared Sliders have also been introduced throughout the U.S. and around the world, including Europe and Guam.
Native from New Mexico north to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia, south through Kentucky and Tennessee into Georgia and extreme northern Mexico. |
| Habitat |
| Prefers areas with calm water and abundant aquatic vegetation; sluggish rivers, ponds, shallow streams, marshes, lakes, and reservoirs. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Three subspecies occur in the United States. Several more occur to the south.
Formerly Chrysemys picta elegans. |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| Hatchling Red-eared sliders have been popular in the pet trade for many years, but few ever live to adulthood. Turtle farms were established to produce enough turtles to satisfy the demand after wild stocks were depleted from collection. Today, native stocks of this turtle are still being depleted for sale around the world, including food markets in Asia. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Emydidae |
Box and Water or Pond Turtles |
| Genus |
Trachemys |
Sliders |
| Species |
scripta |
Pond Slider |
Subspecies
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elegans |
Red-eared Slider |
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Original Description |
Trachemys scripta - (Schoepf, 1792) - Hist. Testud., Pts. 1-2, p. 16, pl. 3, figs. 4 and 5
Trachemys scripta elegans - (Wied, 1838) - Reise Nort-Amer., Vol. 1, Pt. 4, p. 213
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Trachemys - Greek - trachys - rough, and emys -turtle
scripta - Latin - written, marked
elegans - Latin - fine or elegant- refers to the red stripe behind eye on each side of head
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Red-eared Pond Slider
The "dime store" turtle.
Chrysemys picta elegans
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Related or Similar California Turtles |
A. m. marmorata - Northern Pacific Pond Turtle
A. m. pallida - Southern Pacific Pond Turtle
C. p. bellii - Western Painted Turtle
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Carr, Archie. Handbook of Turtles: The Turtles of the United States, Canada, and Baja California. Cornell University Press, 1969.
Ernst, Carl H., Roger W. Barbour, & Jeffrey E. Lovich. Turtles of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution 1994.
Lemm, Jeffrey. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of the San Diego Region (California Natural History Guides). University of California Press, 2006.
Conant, Roger, & Joseph T. Collins. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians Eastern and Central North America. Third Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
This animal is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
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| USDA Forest Service |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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