Natural History: Trachemys scripta

Thursday’s Herpetology lab group set out into Donnelley Wildlife Management Area on a beautiful April day with a slight breeze keeping the mosquitos away.  We all climbed out of the vans immediately, knowing the drill, threw on our rubber boots regardless of the temperature and hopped into the wetlands. As we approached our second site by vehicle, Dr. Welch heard a cry in the back of the bus “TRACHEMYS SCRIPTA!”….well maybe more like “TURTLE!” But the ID and scientific name came soon after the bus skidded to a sudden stop. On the side of the road we saw a yellow bellied slider either crossing the road from wintering grounds or simply basking in the sun as we had been the whole day. The turtle’s distinct yellow patterns on the neck and limbs seemed to shine even brighter that day. Although, the most common turtle in the area, we simply miss out on the experience of capturing them because much of their time is well spent in water or on logs surrounded by water.

Our Brazilian turtle expert immediately took up the opportunity to begin inspecting the yellow bellied slider turtle vigorously to see if it was carrying eggs or not (no lumps, determining no eggs were present but likely juvenile female). As we all passed our new friend around we came to the problem of where to release the turtle. Was the turtle crossing the road? If so we should move it onto the side it was pointing towards. However, if the turtle was basking on the warm road should we relocate it to avoid a road kill incident? Well it seemed to have been still when we arrived so we determined it might have been just soaking up warm rays so we decided to leave it by the road but just to the side. Anneka took four steps off the road and let out a quick scream as she was setting the turtle down and just in time. The turtle had enough and began to kick at her hands giving her a quick surprise.

The yellow bellied slider turtle has a very large range in the southeast of the US (southern Virginia to Alabama). One could find turtles in a variety of habitats including streams/rivers, ponds / lakes, swamps, and seasonal wetlands. They are highly capable of land travel for nesting (over a kilometer!) and for relocation of new habitats.  While these turtles are omnivorous, there are certain trends for example adult males and young turtles typically feed on a carnivorous diet (fish, insects, tadpoles) but adult females (not exclusive to females) tend to be herbivorous focusing on aquatic plants. This turtle lives up to be 30 years with maturity between 2-5 years for males and 5-8 years for females.  The carapace for females reaches 28 cm while for males it reached 20 cm.

References:

http://www.arkive.org/yellow-bellied-slider-turtle/trachemys-scripta/

http://www.nobanis.org/files/factsheets/Trachemys_scripta.pdf