Wednesday, December 25, 2013

red-eared slider ~ 12/25/13 ~ Golden Gate Park

 

I rarely get pictures of turtles I find, because they're either very shy or inaccessible and surrounded by water.  This one at Stow Lake was very accommodating to my creeping up on it.  Maybe it's used to lots of people, or maybe it was someone's pet?  According to Austin's Turtle Page, "Red-eared Sliders are thought to be far & away the highest volume pet turtle produced world-wide & are often sold to people who believe they get little larger than hatchlings.  Therefore they're probably the most widely & often dumped into the wild (both inside & outside their native range) of any turtle species on earth."  That's too bad.  They're a striking-looking turtle, and like its look-alike western painted turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii), they're introduced into CA.

2 comments:

John W. Wall said...

On a sunny day you can often see numerous sliders on every available log or stone. Always with their legs and neck stretched way out. (Second robot failure.)

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Andy was on a turtle hunt. We spotted one right away, but then went around on the shady side and didn't see anymore until we came back around to the sun again. There's got to be a ton of turtles in that lake. I just read somewhere that releasing them is used in some Asian ceremonies. Have you heard this? Maybe they were release back when that Sister City pagoda was put up?