stratigrafia

Yellow-bellied Slider

21 April 2012

This little fellow has been hanging out near our garage the past few days. To get an idea of just how little he is, that’s my eight-year-old son’s finger next to it.

Yellow-bellied Sliders commonly nest far from water. When the young hatch in the spring, they may have to travel over a mile to get to water. Our garage is 300 feet from the river, so we carried him to shorten his journey. As soon as he got to the water, he knew immediately what to do and took off in a shot. He was amazingly agile for the slow pace he made on land.

The backs of young Yellow-bellied Sliders commonly have a keel down the center, which flattens out by the time they reach adulthood.

As you might expect, their belly is, well, yellow. Characteristically, they also have two small dark spots on their belly near their head.

This fellow didn’t seem to mind being picked up or turned upside down, but he certainly seemed happy to get to the water.

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