Painted turtle pics....

Found this guy in my yard.....
I am rather fond of turtles...me and my bro always had them as pets as well as various other reptiles..
I don't think he liked me cause he took off quick...!! Hence...the rear leg actiononey....

When the turtle crosses the road it is going to rain.

Red-eared sliders on the run...

I thought it was a RES but this guy had red stripes on his legs which the RES do not.
Also, the carapace on the RES has a slight keel down the center that is clearly absent on this turtle.
Same family of turtles but classified into separate genera.
Just sayin...

How big was he Gamma ?

Pete

SLE (Straight Carapace Length) was approximately 8 inches. That means the length from the front of the shell to back.
I would say the width of the carapace was about 5 inches.
I think it was a male since the foreclaws were very long which is indicative of males. He was an old bugger I think, from the size.

One of my friends suggested I should have kept it.
I would never even consider such a thing! He deserves to live in his natural environment.
I took him to the large pond across the street where he belongs.

Nice pictures Gamma, the turtle took off fast so it would not become the ROTW!

Zap

Coulda called Ernie...

OMFG! He is gonna eat all them turtles!...
(I was wondering about his front teeth)....a chainsaw took them out?
I don't like that Ernie fella dammit...

Turtle meat is a good addition to booyah.

Allegedly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booyah_(stew)

It's that time of the year again-for the turtles, that is. They are laying there eggs in "nests" and will be all over the place for a couple weeks. Around here, its mostly painted and snappers. Some of the snappers get kinda huge!

Snapping turtles are known to kill cygnets as they feed with their heads down in the weeds of a pond.

neato...my son's BF brought over his fairly large RES yesterday. Our cats freaked out. They're all tough and whatnot when theres a squirrel or bird outside the window but they ran like chickens from the turtle on the dining room floor. I likes me a turtle too.

I think Ernie lost those teeth chomping down on turtle shells...
Cutle little guy, Gamma--sort of wish I had taken a pic of the little box tortoise I found last week, no bigger than one of those little green turtles we used to by in the dime store when I was a kid.

Here ya go Gamma. Found a female doin' her thang (burying eggs) on a golf course a couple weeks ago.

This snapper was crossing the road near a local pond. Hung out with him until he was clear of traffic. That is my cell phone for scale.





KaptJaq