ShannonE

Love it. Still as great a shot now as it was when I saw your post on r/herpetology! ;)

Will do, for sure!

How cool! Beautiful coloration.

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.

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!

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.

Cooper's Hawks don't have the white bars on the wings that are present on this bird; they also don't have the red on the "shoulders," which are indicative of the Red-shouldered Hawk.

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.

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.

Thanks! I will add it.