General Description: Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) are dark colored pond turtles with a domed shell and a bright red ear-patch. The skin in the face and legs are heavily streaked with yellow.

Taxonomy: Sliders (Emydidae).

Technical Description: Shell size to 14 inches. Shell black with faint yellow lines that disappear with age. Legs and neck streaked with yellow. Red patch behind the eye (ear patch). Underside of shell yellow with symmetrical dark blotches. Sawtooth margin on rear of carapace. Shell of young turtles green with yellow streaks.

Diet: Preys on crayfish, aquatic insects, worms, tadpoles, and hopefully non-native aquarium fish.

Habitat: Aquatic habitats such as ponds and slow-moving rivers with aquatic vegetation. Rarely leaves the water, choosing to bask on logs and floating vegetation.

Range: Red-ears are native to the eastern United States, but individuals are widely kept as pets and often discarded in local ponds when no longer wanted. In our area, they can be found in city parks (e.g., Sunset Park) and in ponds at Corn Creek on the Desert National Wildlife Range and in Rogers Spring at Lake Mead NRA.

Breeding: Lays up to 3 clutches of up to 25 eggs during spring to mid-summer.

Similar Species: Several species of pond turtles have been introduced into ponds around southern Nevada, but none of them have the bright red ear patch.

Comments: If you have a pet turtle, don’t release it in a National Wildlife Refuge or National Park.