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.
