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Spotting

Description:

Im thinking its either a painted turtle or some other aquatic turtle.

Habitat:

Pond like environments.

1 Species ID Suggestions

ShannonE
ShannonE 11 years ago
Red-eared Slider
Trachemys scripta elegans Reptiles of BC : Red-eared Slider


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12 Comments

ShannonE
ShannonE 11 years ago

Will do, for sure!

Voddy
Voddy 11 years ago

Oh thats to bad. But if you ever come to the westside be sure to submit spottings to the wildlife of the westcoast marshlands and any other local missions to that area. :)

ShannonE
ShannonE 11 years ago

I would, but my guy is from the eastern seaboard! Yellow-bellied sliders are native to the southeastern United States, which is where I am.

Voddy
Voddy 11 years ago

Also make sure you join wildlife of the westcoast marshlands mission and submit your yellow bellied slider :)

Voddy
Voddy 11 years ago

Thanks alot Shannon :) follow me and tb2 if you want to help us out with our spottings tb2 and I should get quite a few of these types of spottings feel free to ask us questions aswell

ShannonE
ShannonE 11 years ago

Sounds like a good plan. I am pretty familiar with Pond sliders (both Yellow-bellied and Red-eared subspecies!), so if you have any questions, comment and I will be happy to help!

Also, if you go to this site: http://www.bcreptiles.ca/turtles.htm
you will see that there are only three species of freshwater turtle in BC. The Western Pond turtle does not have stripes on its skin, the Painted turtle has a much flatter shell, so that leaves the Red-eared Slider (which is, like I said, a subspecies of Pond Slider). I hope this helps!

Voddy
Voddy 11 years ago

i will look into it a bit more and thanks for the info. Shannon :) appreciate it.

ShannonE
ShannonE 11 years ago

No, but Yellow-bellied sliders and Red-eared sliders are the same species (Trachemys scripta), just different subspecies. The main difference between them is the mark behind the eye; Red-eared sliders have a red marking whereas Yellow-bellied sliders have a yellow "S" shape. Both subspecies often darken with age, obscuring these markings.

Voddy
Voddy 11 years ago

would my spotting even be a yellow bellied pond slider ?

ShannonE
ShannonE 11 years ago

Weird; comments got out of order.

Anyway, this is true, but as the turtles get older, it can often become very difficult to spot that red mark as most adults become darker with age.

You can see dark coloring in a Yellow-bellied Pond Slider (Trachemys scripta scripta) in one of my spottings.

ShannonE
ShannonE 11 years ago

I don't think this is a Painted turtle; Painted turtles have less domed shells, and they don't have those black spots on the underside of the marginal scutes. Those are really indicative of Pond sliders, and one subspecies of the Pond slider has been introduced into British Columbia: the Red-eared slider.

Voddy
Voddy 11 years ago

Good point but, red eared sliders will always have a red mark on the side of their face but this turtle does not have the red mark.

Voddy
Spotted by
Voddy

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Spotted on Oct 8, 2012
Submitted on Oct 9, 2012

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