RED-EARED SLIDER
or
Red-eared Terrapin
(Trachemys scripta elegans)
INVASIVE SPECIES - NOT NATIVE to AUSTRALIA
This adult Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
was photographed at Nusa Dua in Bali (Indonesia)
Adult Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
Juvenile albino Red-eared Slider
(Trachemys scripta elegans)
photographed in a US pet shop.
This sign was photographed in Perth,WA - notice that in WA they still often refer to Australian freshwater turtles as "tortoises". There was a time in Australia up to about 1970 when it was considered incorrect to call our freshwater turtles "tortoises" and the term "turtles" was only used for sea turtles!
In Australia Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans)
are currently feral in NSW, Qld and ACT and have also been found in Victoria and WA.
This species may not be kept as a pet in Australia.
This is probably the most common turtle that has been sold in the pet trade on a worldwide basis for many years,
and has often been sold as a pet for children in thousands of pet shops all around the world.
Usually these are sold as hatchlings, sometimes at extremely low prices.
Feral populations also occur in many other parts of the World, including New Zealand, United Kingdom,
Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Russia, Panama, Guyana, Brazil , Chile,
South Africa, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Austria, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Israel,
Bahrain, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam,
Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawaii,
French Polynesia, Caymans, Bahamas, Bermuda, the Lesser
Antilles and Mascarene Islands.
In cooler areas the populations may not be sustainable, and may consist mainly or solely of released pets which may be long lived (about 30-40 years sometimes more)
It is a subspecies and although I have not seen any wild ones in Australia myself, I have seen them in some other countries and some appear to be crosses between subspecies.
These are native to Southern USA and Northern Mexico.
NEVER RELEASE UNWANTED PETS
LINKS OF INTEREST