Turtle's

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
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8,710
They were out today in force crossing the roads. Had to avoid quite a few.


turtle.jpg



Guy
 
Apr 6, 2004
3,620
564
Galloway
Thanks dragon, but I have to give infinite sameness credit for the find. How old would you guess he is? When do they lose the stripes on their head and the patterns on their shell?
 

dragoncjo

Piney
Aug 12, 2005
1,577
302
43
camden county
He/she was probably born late summer of 2006, possibly overwintering in the nest.....so 1.5 years old. They start to lose alot of there coloring around 5-6 inches long. The bright coloration in young may keep predators away, as some brightly colored things are posionous.
 
Apr 6, 2004
3,620
564
Galloway
Good stuff, dragon. So that latin name is Pseudemys rubriventris? How many different kinds are there? Apparently some of them retain the stripes on their head into adulthood, although the kind we have in the Pines do not?
 

dragoncjo

Piney
Aug 12, 2005
1,577
302
43
camden county
Gabe(I think),

The northern redbelly has a very limited range, its stonghold is obviously here in southern nj. They do retain one or two stripes on there head into adulthood, and the ones found within the cedar streams are by far the most pretty. They are in the slider family and throughout the south and midwest there are many subspecies, some of which are more pretty adults. Some examples would be florida redbelly, rio grande cooter, pennisula cooter, river cooter, florida yellowbelly.

If you guys enjoy turtle photos I have a couple 100 photos of them....i can post some if you'd like.
 
Apr 6, 2004
3,620
564
Galloway
Dragon, I never noticed any stripes on the adults. Do they typically get obscured by stuff in the water? Can you show us a few pictures of some adult red bellies with stripes on their head?

Gabe
 

dragoncjo

Piney
Aug 12, 2005
1,577
302
43
camden county
Gabe, they sometimes fade with age.....also the mud from stream like the rancocas(outside the barrens) mucks up there head and disguises it. At the same time the iron, cedar water sometimes blemishes their head. For the most part the one or two stripes are there but just faded. I'll have to see if I have a good pic........unfortunately I spend little time photographing redbellies because they are so locally common.
 

andy1015

Explorer
May 4, 2007
234
1
42
Are the redbelly what i would call a common slider? Then there is the red eared slider. The redbelly are not either of these? I was fascinated with turtles when i was younger and don't remember hearing about redbelly sliders. It was always slider or red eared.

Dragon i see we live very close to each other, i bet we hit a lot of the same lakes.
 
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