All about the red-eared slider turtles...

Red-eared Sliders are medium-sized turtles. Like tortoises, these turtles have smooth shells, but of a sleeker build, that protects them from predators. Since turtles spend a considerable proportion of their time swimming in the water, their sleeker bodies help them swim more efficiently. Their carapaces are olive green to dark brown in color with several streaks of black and yellow irradiating from the center to the periphery. Their plastrons are pale yellow in color. Their legs and necks are olive green to dark brown in color with bright yellow streaks. Distinctive brilliant red lines run from their eyes and taper toward their necks giving them their name. Red-eared Sliders have blunt heads and well-developed legs. Although males and females are almost similar in shape, size, and form there are some minor differences. Males have longer claws than females, which they use to hold onto the female during mating. In addition, males have concave plastrons while those of the females are flat. Both male and female carapaces are usually a foot and a half in length and they can weigh between two and a half to three pounds.

Diet

Although they are omnivorous, they are more diverse in their selection of prey feeding on aquatic invertebrates, fish, frogs, and small aquatic birds.

Habitat

Red-eared Sliders are endemic to North America and are mostly found in northern Mexico and the south-eastern United States (Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas). They live in freshwater habitats in and around the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.

Reproduction

Unlike mammals, and like other reptiles, Red-eared Sliders cannot thermoregulate. In the cold winter months, these turtles sink to the bottom of the water bodies they live in and slow down their activity levels to become almost dormant. This behavior is called brumation. When the climate starts warming up in spring, they emerge to bask in the sun.

Breeding in Red-eared Sliders takes place from spring to summer. The male exhibits distinctive courtship displays unique to this species. He extends his forelegs toward the female and moves his claws rapidly in an up-and-down motion along the female’s neck and head. While mating takes place in the water, the females come ashore to dig nests to lay their eggs. They are known to lay around four to 20 eggs in a breeding season. Parents do not incubate or care for their young and hatchlings are independent from the time they have hatched heading directly toward a water body where they are less likely to be predated upon. While males sexually mature from three to five years of age, it takes a few more years for females to mature (between five to seven years of age).

Conservation

Since Red-eared Sliders populations in the wild have been estimated to be currently stable, they are categorized as Least Concern by the International Union for World Conservation. However, these turtles are very popular as pets and large numbers of turtles are abandoned by their owners in local water bodies when they are unable to continue taking care of them. Although the species is not native to California, Red-eared Sliders have been widely introduced into native habitats within the state and compete with native threatened wildlife (for example western pond turtles) for their homes and food resources. The federal government in the U.S. banned the sale of fertile turtle eggs and small turtles as a precautionary measure when there were incidents of turtle pet owners contracting salmonella from their pets.