Red eared slider turtle

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Red eared slider turtle
Red-eared slider turtle sunbathing

Red-eared slider turtle sunbathing

Systematics
Subordination : Halsberger tortoises (Cryptodira)
Family : New World pond turtles (Emydidae)
Subfamily : Deirochelyinae
Genre : Letter ear turtles ( Trachemys )
Type : North American alphabet
turtle ( Trachemys scripta )
Subspecies : Red eared slider turtle
Scientific name
Trachemys scripta elegans
( Wied-Neuwied , 1838)

The red- eared slider turtle ( Trachemys scripta elegans ) belongs to the family of the New World pond turtles (Emydidae). It is native to North America and spends most of its life in freshwater .

Appearance

Swimming red-eared slider turtle

Dark green, relatively flat armor, often with yellow to orange spots and lines; Yellow plastron with large black spots on each tag; strong orange to red temple pads. The males differ from the females: the tail of the male is longer and thicker, the cloaca further away from the shell. In the male the plastron is curved inwards, in the female it is flat. Furthermore, the male's front claws become significantly longer than those of the female from the age of two.

Weight and length

Female red-eared slider turtles can grow up to 30 cm long, while the males stay a little smaller at 25 cm. The weight of a fully grown female is up to 1.5 kg.

Occurrence

The distribution area of ​​the red-eared tortoise is in the central and eastern USA from the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan over the Mississippi valley to the Gulf of Mexico and northeastern Mexico . In Germany, too, there are now populations due to abandoned animals. In Austria, they have become at home by abandoning them in the Vienna Dehnepark .

Life expectancy

Red eared slider turtles live to be 30–40 years old. From a size of about 18 cm, the females begin to lay eggs.

Way of life

Undisturbed ponds or slowly flowing river sections with muddy bottom and dense bank vegetation are the preferred habitat of the red-eared slider turtle. Like other pond turtles, they spend a lot of time out of the water in spring and summer and sunbathe for hours.

behavior

When sunbathing, the animals are quite sociable, often in large groups in a confined space. The sociability of these animals only relates to sunbathing, as each of these animals wants to get the most beautiful place. In the wild, the red-eared turtle only comes together to mate, otherwise each animal has its own territory.

Reproduction

When the temperature is high enough in spring, the turtles are ready to mate. The male vibrates with his long front claws in front of the ocular region of the female's face, which is part of courtship behavior. The claws help him to cling to his partner's back armor. In early summer, the female then carefully chooses a place for the clutch. With its hind legs it digs a pit for up to 22 eggs. The young turtles grow very quickly and can be six to seven centimeters long in their second summer.

trade

The red-eared eared turtle was one of the most common turtles available in pet stores. In the meantime, the trade of this species has been severely restricted, since the import for commercial purposes was prohibited.

Species protection

The red-eared jeweled turtles are listed in Appendix B of the EU Species Protection Ordinance and also included in the German Federal Species Protection Ordinance . However, this is not because they are endangered, but because of the risk of faunal adulteration .

literature

  • Carl H. Ernst, Jeffrey E. Lovich: Turtles of the United States and Canada . Johns Hopkins University Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-8018-9121-2 , pp. 444-470 ( excerpt from Google book search)
  • John B. Jensen, Carlos D. Camp, Whit Gibbons: Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia . University of Georgia Press 2008, ISBN 978-0-8203-3111-9 , pp. 500–502 ( excerpt from Google book search)
  • James H. Harding: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Great Lakes Region . University of Michigan Press 1997, ISBN 0-472-06628-5 , pp. 216–220 ( excerpt from Google Book Search)

Web links

Commons : Red eared sliver  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Description on a website of the zoo in Perth (accessed July 10, 2019)
  2. ^ Radek Bednarczuk: The Care and Reproduction of the Red-Eared Slider . Tropical Fish Magazine, April 2014
  3. ^ Dan England: A pet for the pond: Red-eared slider named Willy enjoys a long life in the home of a Greeley couple . The Tribune, October 17, 2017
  4. ↑ Trachemys scripta elegans (red-eared slider) in the Invasive Species Compendium (cabi.org, November 18, 2018)