Red-Eared Slider

Overview

The red-eared slider is one of the world's most widely recognized freshwater turtles, named for the distinctive red stripe behind each eye. Native to the Mississippi River valley, they have become one of the most invasive reptile species globally - released or escaped pets have established populations on every continent except Antarctica. In the wild they bask in large groups on logs and rocks, maintaining a clear social hierarchy.

Quick Facts

History

Baby red-eared sliders were a dime-store staple in the 1960s, sold cheap and small on the promise that they were easy, and mass collected from ponds across the South. The public health cost was measured: pet turtles were once linked to roughly 280,000 Salmonella infections a year in the United States, and in 1975 the FDA banned the sale of turtles with a shell under four inches, on the reasoning that a larger turtle will not fit in a small child's mouth. That rule does not touch exports, so the farms that had supplied the domestic dime-store trade turned to shipping hatchlings overseas instead. The species is now established as an invasive on every continent except Antarctica.