Identify please

[jpmcclure]

Can anyone help me identify this? I think he’s actually a turtle not a tortoise. He was wandering my neighborhood.

 

[Yvonne G]

Might be an african side neck. Let's ask @Markw84

 

[jpmcclure]

Might be an african side neck. Let's ask @Markw84

He looks like the turtles that live in the river a few blocks away. I can’t imagine he’d walk to a neighborhood though. Unless someone plucked him from his family. ?

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

looks like a melatoninistic male res.

 

[Toddrickfl1]

Looks like an old slider

 

[Markw84]

Agree with above. That is a very worn, male, melanistic red eared slider. Trachemys scripta elegans

 

[Maggie3fan]

Oh hallelujah! Hell has frozen over, look'et who was wrong...roflmao...ta da

 

[jpmcclure]

Agree with above. That is a very worn, male, melanistic red eared slider. Trachemys scripta elegans

Thank you all so much. He was actually a Western Pond turtle. And I found out how he got into my neighborhood. Another neighbor was fishing in the river and decided to bring him and another one home as pets. Then decided he didn’t want them after all and just let them go outside!!! I kept the first one in a baby pool overnight and released him to the river this morning. He swam away and looked so happy. Now I’m worried about the second one. I have all my neighbors on high alert so if they see him, I can get him to his natural surroundings as well. I don’t get people sometimes. They’re endangered in Washington and they’re protected here in California so it’s illegal to remove them. I’m so tempted to turn him in and make this hit his pocketbook!! ?

 

[Markw84]

Thank you all so much. He was actually a Western Pond turtle. And I found out how he got into my neighborhood. Another neighbor was fishing in the river and decided to bring him and another one home as pets. Then decided he didn’t want them after all and just let them go outside!!! I kept the first one in a baby pool overnight and released him to the river this morning. He swam away and looked so happy. Now I’m worried about the second one. I have all my neighbors on high alert so if they see him, I can get him to his natural surroundings as well. I don’t get people sometimes. They’re endangered in Washington and they’re protected here in California so it’s illegal to remove them. I’m so tempted to turn him in and make this hit his pocketbook!! ?

That is NOT a Western Pond Turtle! that is a slider.

Easy way for you to tell between those two with limited pictures - look at the first vertebral scute. A western Pond Turtle will have a scute wider at the marginals narrowing as it joins the 2nd vertebral. A slider (trachemys) has the opposite happening with the shape of that scute. Believe me... That is a Trachemys scripta elegans.

Do NOT release that turtle into the wild here. It is an invasive species.

A few Western Pond Turtles Actinemys marmorata so you can see the difference:

 

[jpmcclure]

That is NOT a Western Pond Turtle! that is a slider.

Easy way for you to tell between those two with limited pictures - look at the first vertebral scute. A western Pond Turtle will have a scute wider at the marginals narrowing as it joins the 2nd vertebral. A slider (trachemys) has the opposite happening with the shape of that scute. Believe me... That is a Trachemys scripta elegans.

Do NOT release that turtle into the wild here. It is an invasive species.

A few Western Pond Turtles Actinemys marmorata so you can see the difference:

View attachment 298087

View attachment 298088

What do I do? I already took him this morning. Should I go try to find him tomorrow? Omg. Does that mean he’ll kill the actual pond turtles that have lived in the river by me for years? I’m sick over this! I’m so sorry.

 

[Markw84]

What do I do? I already took him this morning. Should I go try to find him tomorrow? Omg. Does that mean he’ll kill the actual pond turtles that have lived in the river by me for years? I’m sick over this! I’m so sorry.

No big disaster! there are plenty of sliders in most all our lakes and ponds in California now. that is the problem! They don't kill the other turtles, but they occupy and take up the same spot in the ecosystem so are competing with our native turtle. Once a turtle, including a native turtle, has been in captivity and exposed to other possible turtles in a collection, it is also not allowed to release it back into the wild population for fear of disease/parasite/foreign bio-loads, that it could pass on to the wild populations.

The one you had was apparently caught from this same place you released it, so it apparently was living there already for a period of time. It did look very scarred up by what would look like previous shell rot issues, so it did have the look of a long-term captive that was not well cared for. Those are the types of turtles I hate to see released into a native population.

 

[jpmcclure]

No big disaster! there are plenty of sliders in most all our lakes and ponds in California now. that is the problem! They don't kill the other turtles, but they occupy and take up the same spot in the ecosystem so are competing with our native turtle. Once a turtle, including a native turtle, has been in captivity and exposed to other possible turtles in a collection, it is also not allowed to release it back into the wild population for fear of disease/parasite/foreign bio-loads, that it could pass on to the wild populations.

The one you had was apparently caught from this same place you released it, so it apparently was living there already for a period of time. It did look very scarred up by what would look like previous shell rot issues, so it did have the look of a long-term captive that was not well cared for. Those are the types of turtles I hate to see released into a native population.

Apparently the guy caught and brought home 2 of them from the same river, but in a neighboring city. I still haven't seen the second one wandering the neighborhood. If I find him, should I just care for him? Or call wildlife and have them pick it up?