Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
Trachemys scripta scripta
This is, I believe, a yellow-bellied slider, Trachemys scripta scripta. I'd love to get confirmation on this from Project Noah's resident turtle expert, one Mr. Neil Dazet. This turtle was surprisingly brave and held back from dropping into the cypress waters at Grand Bay when I approached. They're usually pretty quick to disappear and flee. Yellow-bellied sliders are *extremely* common at Grand Bay. 90% of the time, that's what I see at Grand Bay on the turtle front. There are also a good number of Florida softshells, but the yellow-bellieds definitely own the area. [jansonjones http://dusttracks.com]
Lat: 30.93, Long: -83.20
Spotted on Jun 10, 2012
Submitted on Jun 15, 2012
2 Comments
It might be an eastern river cooter
Janson, thank you for praising my turtle expertise! Although, I am a tiny bit perplexed by this one here. Those yellow eye markings are wicked! For the most part it looks like a yellow-bellied slider. Some of those markings on the carapace look more like a red-bellied cooter though, but their distribution isn't in that part of Georgia. Your current ID is fine though. It could be some weird hybrid like this one I found last year: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/634...