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Big Bend Slider
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- Order: Testudines (turtles)
- Suborder: Cryptodira (all turtles besides
side-necked turtles)
- Family: Emydidae (semiaquatic turtles)
- Subfamily: Deirochelyinae (sliders and map
turtles)
- Genus: Trachemys (sliders)
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Scientific Name: Trachemys gaigeae
(Hartweg, 1938) |
| Habitat: slow-moving
areas of water in and around the Big Bend of the Rio Grande. |
Trachys="rough," emys="turtle,"
gaigeae in honor of naturalist Helen Thompson Gaige, who first
collected this species
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| Length: Shell to almost 12
inches for females. Males are usually much smaller. |
Previous Scientific
Names: Pseudemys scripta gaigeae, Chrysemys scripta
gaigeae |
| Food: Young are
omnivorous; adults typically eat mostly plant material. |
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I saw several large turtles in the Rio Grande near
Boquillas Canyon in Big Bend National Park on 06 March
2004. As you can see from the picture, my vantage point high
atop a cliff was not sufficient to get a good photograph;
therefore, the species ID is not absolutely certain, but is my
best guess. The turtles periodically surfaced momentarily
for air, and that's when I took the picture here. |
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| The Big Bend slider was previously
considered a subspecies of the red-eared
slider. |
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