North American Pond Slider Habitats Are Clayey, Loamy, Sandy, Watery

Summary: North American pond slider habitats are clayey, loamy, sandy, watery home ranges that accommodate autumn and spring mating and spring and summer nesting.

The appellation pond slider and pond slider turtle accommodates one species that arranges taxonomically into three subspecies. Yellow-bellied pond sliders act as species, Trachemys scripta (from Greek τρᾱχύς, “rough” and ἐμύς, “freshwater tortoise [Emys orbicularis, European pond turtle]” and from Latin scrīpta, “text, writing, written”), and as first-named, nominate subspecies, Trachemys scripta scripta. The species allows another two subspecies: Cumberland sliders (acknowledged additionally as Cumberland turtle and Troost’s turtle commonly and, for naturalist Gerardus Troost [March 5, 1776-Aug. 14, 1850], Trachemys scripta troostii scientifically); and red-eared sliders (acknowledged additionally as red-eared terrapins commonly and Trachemys scripta elegans [from Latin ēlegāns, “elegant”] scientifically); yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta): John J. Mosesso/USGS NBII (National Biological Information Infrastructure), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

North American pond slider habitats are clayey, loamy, sandy, watery home ranges that accommodate autumn and spring mating and spring and summer nesting as well as water-bottom hibernators and winter nest-abiding hatchlings.

Cumberland (T. s. troosti) and red-eared (T. s. elegans) pond slider subspecies buttress the yellow-bellied species (T. scripta) and its first-named, nominate subspecies (T. s. scripta). Johann David Schoepff (March 8, 1752-Sep. 10, 1800) and Carl Peter Thunberg (Nov. 11, 1743-Aug. 8, 1828) in 1792 classified yellow-bellied pond slider species and subspecies. John Edwards Holbrook (Dec. 31, 1796-Sep. 8, 1871) in 1836 described the Cumberland subspecies, also designated Troost’s turtle, for Gerardus Troost (March 5, 1776-Aug. 14, 1850).

Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (Sep. 23, 1782-Feb. 3, 1867) in 1839 examined red-eared terrapins (Virginia Algonquian *tōrəp, “sea turtle” and Latin –īnus, “of” via English –ine).

March through June, June through July and July through September function as breeding, egg incubation and hatchling emergence months for Cumberland, red-eared and yellow-bellied pond sliders.

Sun-warmed logs and stumps goad Testudines (from Latin testūdō, “turtle” and Greek -ηνός via Latin –īnus, “of”) order members getting into body temperature-controlling side-by-sides and stack-ups. Pesticide-hounded, pollution-hurt invertebrate and plant prey harms Emydidae (from Greek ἐμύς, “freshwater tortoise” and -ειδής [“-like”] via Latin emys and -idæ) marsh-turtle, pond-turtle, terrapin family flesh. Their daytime itineraries include sun-warmed interludes for improved energy flow and muscle use and, despite elongated, flattened, land-unfriendly, untortoise-like, water-friendly webbed hindfeet, diurnal overland crawling intervals.

Collectors, developers, off-shore drillers, polluters and predatory birds, fish, frogs, opossums, otters, raccoons, skunks and snakes jeopardize 30-year life expectancies of North American pond slider habitats.

Physically and sexually mature, two- to five-, five-plus-year old males keep elongated, straightened fore-claws for elaborate courtship behaviors with mature, five- to eight-, eight-plus-year-old female sliders.

Females lay maximally five 4- to 23-egg, seasonal clutches in clayey, loamy or sandy, flask-shaped, 1- to 4-inch- (2.5- to 10.2-centimeter-) deep nests alongside water bodies. Birth nests may overwinter hatchlings from 1.2- to 1.7-inch (31- to 42-millimeter) by 0.7- to 1.0-inch (19- to 26-millimeter), oval, 60- to 80-day incubated, soft-shelled eggs. Omnivorous adults need aquatic vegetation such as duckweed and hyacinth; mixed, waterside greens such as dandelions; and, along with carnivorous juveniles, crayfish, earthworms, frogs and insects.

North American pond slider habitats offer season's coldest temperatures, north to southward, from minus 15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26.1 to minus 1.1 degrees Celsius).

South Carolina and Tennessee; Virginia through Mississippi; everywhere between Tennessee, panhandle Florida, New Mexico, Kansas and West Virginia preserve for subspecies North American pond slider habitats.

Brown-green, 5- to 11.5-inch- (12.5- to 29-centimeter-) long, oval, weak-ridged carapaces (from Spanish carapacho, “[tortoise’s upper-]shell” via French carapace) quarter eyelike yellow-spotted, mesh-like, transverse, yellow-barred patterns. Red eye-striped and yellow eye-blotched subspecies retain plastrons (from Greek ἐν-, “on” and πλάσσω, “to daub” via Latin emplastrum, “shield”), unlike unpatterned Cumberland lower-shells, dark-smudged yellow. Yellow-bellied subspecies show yellow-blotched upper-shell costal scutes (bony external plate, from Latin scūtum, “shield”) even as Cumberland, red-eared and yellow-bellied sliders all suffer from age-blackened heads.

Oval, weak-ridged, yellow-marked brown-gray upper-shells with round-chinned heads, 12-scuted sides, 12-scuted yellow lower-shells, v-notched upper jaws and webbed hind-feet troop through North American pond slider habitats.

The pond slider species Trachemys scripta adapts to mating-season temperature ranges between 72.5 and 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit (22.5 and 27 degrees Celsius) and around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) that respectively account for more male than female hatchlings and allow more eggs appearing as female than male hatchlings. Such temperature ranges adjust female and male hatchling ratios among the Cumberland subspecies, Trachemys scripta troostii, in eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia and western South Carolina. They affect female and male hatchling ratios among red-eared sliders, Trachemys scripta elegans, in almost all Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas; all Arkansas and Louisiana; eastern New Mexico; half of Alabama, as regular but scattered populations northeast to northwest and southwest; northern and western Kentucky; southern Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia; western Georgia and Tennessee; and westernmost panhandle Florida. They anticipate female and male hatchling ratios among first-named, nominate, yellow-bellied subspecies (Trachemys scripta scripta) members in almost all Georgia and South Carolina; eastern North Carolina; half of Alabama, as regular but scattered populations northeast to northwestward and southwestward; panhandle Florida; and southeasternmost Virginia; composite range map for three pond slider (Trachemys scripta) subspecies: U.S. Geological Survey Non-Indigenous Aquatic Species (USGS NAS), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The appellation pond slider and pond slider turtle accommodates one species that arranges taxonomically into three subspecies. Yellow-bellied pond sliders act as species, Trachemys scripta (from Greek τρᾱχύς, “rough” and ἐμύς, “freshwater tortoise [Emys orbicularis, European pond turtle]” and from Latin scrīpta, “text, writing, written”), and as first-named, nominate subspecies, Trachemys scripta scripta. The species allows another two subspecies: Cumberland sliders (acknowledged additionally as Cumberland turtle and Troost’s turtle commonly and, for naturalist Gerardus Troost [March 5, 1776-Aug. 14, 1850], Trachemys scripta troostii scientifically); and red-eared sliders (acknowledged additionally as red-eared terrapins commonly and Trachemys scripta elegans [from Latin ēlegāns, “elegant”] scientifically); yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta): John J. Mosesso/USGS NBII (National Biological Information Infrastructure), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yellow-bellied_Slider_2.jpg

The pond slider species Trachemys scripta adapts to mating-season temperature ranges between 72.5 and 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit (22.5 and 27 degrees Celsius) and around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) that respectively account for more male than female hatchlings and allow more eggs appearing as female than male hatchlings. Such temperature ranges adjust female and male hatchling ratios among the Cumberland subspecies, Trachemys scripta troostii, in eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia and western South Carolina. They affect female and male hatchling ratios among red-eared sliders, Trachemys scripta elegans, in almost all Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas; all Arkansas and Louisiana; eastern New Mexico; half of Alabama, as regular but scattered populations northeast to northwest and southwest; northern and western Kentucky; southern Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia; western Georgia and Tennessee; and westernmost panhandle Florida. They anticipate female and male hatchling ratios among first-named, nominate, yellow-bellied subspecies (Trachemys scripta scripta) members in almost all Georgia and South Carolina; eastern North Carolina; half of Alabama, as regular but scattered populations northeast to northwestward and southwestward; panhandle Florida; and southeasternmost Virginia; composite range map for three pond slider (Trachemys scripta) subspecies: U.S. Geological Survey Non-Indigenous Aquatic Species (USGS NAS), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tracheymys_scripta_range.png

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