Where is the red-eared slider legal?

A person may possess, transport, or export, but not propagate, a red-eared slider taken from the wild in Colorado for the life of the animal.

Colorado reversed itself on this species in 2026. The red-eared slider used to be named outright on the Chapter W-11 unregulated wildlife list; Chapter W-7 § 708(A) now declares it invasive herpetofauna detrimental to Colorado wildlife and habitat, allows unlimited collection from the wild, and leaves Emydidae off every appendix. CPW's summary of the position is "No import, no sale". What survives is narrow and points the wrong way for a buyer: § 708(C)(1) permits keeping a slider taken from the wild in Colorado, for that animal's life, with no propagation and no release. So the pet-trade route is closed while the wild-take route is wide open, which is the opposite of how these rules usually run.

How this rule works: Secretary of State's official text of the new herpetofauna chapter, effective 1 May 2026. A closed-list scheme: #701 makes possession of any live reptile or amphibian unlawful unless the chapter allows it, Appendix A is free possession, Appendix B is free possession with documentation, Appendix C is wild collection under a resident licence, and anything on none of them is regulated wildlife.

Red-eared slider – Trachemys scripta elegans;

On Montana's prohibited species list, so it may not be possessed, sold, purchased, exchanged or transported in the state.

How this rule works: Montana runs a white list, which is unusual. § 87-5-705(1) says a person may not import, possess or sell any exotic wildlife unless it is allowed by law or commission rule, so an animal that appears on none of the three lists is not permitted rather than unregulated. § 87-5-706 is the statutory noncontrolled list and § 87-5-702 puts rodents, cats, dogs and Eurasian ferrets outside the scheme as domestic animals.

Pond slider — Emydidae — Pseudemys and Trachemys All species and hybrids;

Both genera are prohibited outright, and the same species is excepted by name from the Emydidae clearance on the noncontrolled list, so Oregon says it twice. This is among the firmest positions any state on this map takes on the red-eared slider: not a licence, not an invasive-species labelling rule, a flat bar on possession, import, purchase, sale, exchange and transport. OAR 635-056-0150 allows someone who held the animal before the commission listed it to keep it for its life, on proof of lawful prior possession, with no transfer, sale or transport inside Oregon and no release. Oregon cities and counties may prohibit exotic animals by ordinance on top of state law, so check the municipality as well.

How this rule works: The ban list, and the one to check before assuming a common pet is fine in Oregon. It reaches the prairie dog, the capybara, the southern flying squirrel, the tiger salamander, the snapping turtle and the whole of Trachemys, all of which are ordinary pet-trade animals elsewhere on this map.

The following species may not be taken or possessed in any number for private use: red-eared slider and all reptile and amphibian Species of Greatest Conservation Need designated in Virginia’s 2015 Wildlife Action Plan.

Virginia runs two schemes and 4VAC15-20-50 decides which one an animal is in, so the exotic permit table is the wrong rule for anything Virginia already has. A nonnative (exotic) animal is one "not naturally occurring in Virginia, excluding domestic and naturalized species", which puts every native and every naturalized species outside 4VAC15-30-40 and inside 4VAC15-360-10. Native and naturalized status is not a judgment call here: it is fixed by a document incorporated by reference, the department’s 2024 List of Native and Naturalized Fauna of Virginia, where an asterisk marks a naturalized species and two asterisks one native in some areas and naturalized in others. The department’s list carries "Red-eared Slider * Trachemys scripta elegans *", the asterisk denoting a naturalized species, and a naturalized animal is expressly excluded from the definition of a nonnative (exotic) animal, so the permit table the old entry read never applied to this turtle. What applies is 4VAC15-360-10, and the slider is the only animal the section names by common name in its bar: subdivision (A)(6) says the red-eared slider and every reptile and amphibian Species of Greatest Conservation Need may not be taken or possessed in any number for private use. In any number, so this is not the one-per-address cap at a smaller figure, it is the private-use allowance withheld outright, and with it withheld nothing permits possession of what 4VAC15-20-50 makes a wild animal. Virginia writing the most common pet turtle in the country into the same sentence as its conservation-priority natives is deliberate: the slider is naturalized here because released pets established it. Note also that the two sliders Virginia does treat as its own, the Cumberland slider and the yellow-bellied slider, are on the Species of Greatest Conservation Need list and are barred by the same subdivision.

How this rule works: The rule the exotic permit table does not reach, and the one that answers a Virginia native or naturalized herp: one individual of any native or naturalized species of amphibian or reptile per physical address, live, for private use and not for sale or export. It covers aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles and nongame fish, and no mammal.

Unless specifically exempt from the permitting requirement as presented in regulation 6.1, all persons who would own or have custody of an exotic animal must first obtain a permit issued by the Department.

The red-eared slider is a live reptile not native to Delaware and is not on the exempt list, so regulation 6.2 requires an Individual permit before anyone may bring one in, possess, sell or exhibit it. Delaware exempts no chelonian of any kind. The permit is a $25 Individual permit from the Department of Agriculture, issued where possession will be in the public interest, so this is a real route rather than a closed door.

How this rule works: The regulation that actually decides Delaware, and it is much narrower than the list circulating in secondary sources. § 7201 requires a permit before anyone brings in, possesses, sells or exhibits a live wild mammal, a hybrid of a wild mammal, or a live reptile not native to Delaware, and bans non-native venomous snakes outright with no permit available. Regulation 6.1 then exempts a named list of pets from the permit entirely, and 6.2 says everything else needs one. The only species the State Veterinarian may not permit at all are at 4.7: gila monsters, beaded lizards and komodo dragons. Pythons, anacondas and boas appear only at 7.5.2.10, a restriction on what Sales Permit holders may breed, not a possession ban. The Delaware regulations site is a single-page app that serves no text to a fetcher, so this was read from a full reproduction and cross-checked against the Department of Agriculture's own exotic animals page.

Trachemys (all species in genus)

Part B is the restricted list for private and commercial use, so unlike a Part A animal this one has a route, but it needs a permit rather than being freely importable.

How this rule works: The list that matters most for pet keepers and the one almost never quoted. Conditional approval means importation and possession are allowed subject to the conditions the Board of Agriculture sets, unlike the restricted list, which is research and exhibition only.

Testudines (Turtles And Tortoises)

No Trachemys is on the list. Maine treats the slider as a species it does not want established, so a permit rather than an outright naming is what stands between it and a pet keeper.

How this rule works: The list 12 M.R.S. § 12152(1-A) requires the department to maintain and 09-137 CMR ch. 7 § 7.06(1) describes: species needing no importation, exhibition, propagation, research or possession permit, which pet shops may also trade. Dated 11 August 2017 on every page, and this is the version IFW still serves. Three headings do most of the work: Reptilia, Serpentes and Testudines each carry "Captive Bred Origin Only", and an asterisk on an entry removes anything on the USFWS injurious or threatened and endangered lists, in CITES Appendix I, or on the IUCN Red List as Endangered, Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild.

All species of turtles may be kept without a permit, up to a limit of 100 turtles and/or eggs, in any combination, of each species, except for the following species for which a permit is always required: 1. Species categorically non-exempt pursuant to 321 CMR 9.01(3). 2. Argentina or Chaco Tortoise (Geochelone chilensis). 3. Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) and all other species in the genus Gopherus. 4. Pancake Tortoise (Malacochersus tornieri). 5. Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata). 6. Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta, including all subspecies and forms).

One of only five species pulled out of the turtle allowance by name, and the parenthetical is deliberately wide: "Trachemys scripta, including all subspecies and forms". So the yellow-bellied and Cumberland sliders are caught alongside the red-eared, and so is a captive-bred colour morph. The reason is ecological rather than conservation-driven, since the slider is IUCN least concern; it is on the list because an escaped one establishes. MassWildlife's own guidance is blunt about what that means in practice: permits for non-exempt wildlife "are issued only for certain scientific, educational, commercial, or other specific reasons" and "You will not be issued a permit for keeping a wild animal as a pet." The statute is less absolute, since § 23 contemplates "an individual license for an animal that is not on the special exemption list" and even sets a preference for captive-bred animals where wild depletion is an issue, so the licence exists on paper and the agency says it will not grant one for a pet.

How this rule works: Massachusetts runs a closed white list and says so in terms: a species not on it, or listed as requiring a permit, is not exempt from M.G.L. c. 131, § 23. Two structural points decide most of this state. First, 9.01(2) defines "species" as a "distinct non-domestic VERTEBRATE animal population", and § 23 itself reaches only fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, so terrestrial invertebrates are outside the scheme entirely. Second, 9.01(3) is a categorical override that most readings of this rule miss: no species may be exempted if it is listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, appears in the IUCN Red Book(s), or is on the Massachusetts endangered, threatened and special concern list at 321 CMR 10.90. Nearly every group listing in 9.01 repeats the cross-reference, so it operates as a live carve-out rather than as drafting furniture, and it is what pulls the Burmese python out of Boidae, the crested gecko out of Gekkonidae and the box turtle out of the turtle allowance.

those species of mammals... and nonvenomous reptiles and amphibians native to Missouri

Native to Missouri, so Class I rather than outside the Wildlife Code.

How this rule works: Class I is native Missouri mammals, reptiles and amphibians plus birds native to the continental United States. Class II is the venomous natives, mountain lion, wolf and black bear. Class III is cervids. An animal that is none of these is outside the Wildlife Code entirely.

A permit shall be required for any other exotic mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians, or nongame species not specifically exempted by N.J.A.C. 7:25-4.4.

New Jersey is a closed-list state in the strict sense. 7:25-4.2(a) bars possession of any exotic or nongame species without a permit, 4.4 then names the handful that may be kept without one, and 4.5 sweeps everything else back in. The red-eared slider appears on none of the Division's three lists, so it is not exempt under 4.4, not one of the families singled out in 4.3, and not potentially dangerous under 4.8. That leaves 4.5, and the permit it points to is the individual hobby permit at 4.6(a)1, which 4.7 conditions on diet, caging that prevents escape, lawful acquisition, veterinary care and freedom from disease. The Division's own handout tells readers to phone the permits office for anything the lists do not name, which is a fair signal that the catch-all is where these end up rather than an oversight. The federal four inch rule under 21 CFR 1240.62 sits on top of this and bars the sale of hatchlings anywhere in the country, which is a distinct restriction from New Jersey's permit.

How this rule works: NJDEP's own courtesy copy of the whole of N.J.A.C. 7:25. Subchapter 4 starts at 7:25-4.1 and carries the definitions, the permit requirement at 4.2, the three species lists at 4.3, 4.4 and 4.8, the pet bar at 4.9(a)3 and 4.15(b), and the state endangered list at 4.13. The three list PDFs the Division hands out are extracts of this.

Rep/Amph | Turtle | Emydidae | Trachemys scripta elegans | Red-eared Slider | II

Group II on the Director's list: not known to be invasive or dangerous, but an importation permit is still required before the animal may be brought into New Mexico. Named to the subspecies, alongside the yellow-bellied and Cumberland sliders. The South American red-lined slider is the outlier at Group IV. One caveat on all of this: 19.35.7 NMAC is an importation rule, its stated scope being persons who desire to bring wildlife species into New Mexico, so it governs getting the animal here rather than keeping one already in the state.

How this rule works: The roughly 1,300 row table that 19.35.7 NMAC points at and that earlier research could not obtain. Every row gives a family, a scientific name, a common name and a roman numeral group. Group I is semi-domesticated and needs no importation permit. Group II is not known to be invasive or dangerous and needs a permit. Group III presents minimal or manageable concerns and needs a permit with specific provisions attached. Group IV is prohibited to the general public. The list is reached from the download page rather than a direct file URL, and the site needs a User-Agent header.

Testudines | Emydidae | Trachemys | scripta elegans | Red-eared slider

Named on the Restricted list to the subspecies, along with the yellow-bellied and Cumberland sliders, so the whole Trachemys scripta complex is caught. A permit exists on paper but not for a pet: Regulation 881 says the Commissioner shall not issue a permit for keeping or possessing a wild animal in captivity except for bona fide scientific or educational purposes. So restricted here means a private keeper cannot have one, not that there is paperwork to fill in.

How this rule works: The appendix the Unrestricted list keeps pointing at. Headed: species below are exceptions to Unrestricted Wild Animal List status and require an importation and possession permit. It matters because several families are unrestricted as a whole and then clawed back species by species here, which is how Vermont ends up allowing a ball python and not a Burmese, a California kingsnake and not an eastern milk snake.

Non-native turtles. Red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans): red-eared sliders may be possessed only by permitted individuals or commercial import or export businesses according to the provisions of subsection 68-5.005(4), F.A.C., except as provided below: (a) Red-eared sliders in personal possession prior to July 1, 2007 may continue in the possession of the owner without a permit, except that red-eared sliders less than four inches carapace length may not be possessed after July 1, 2008 without a permit. (b) Red-eared sliders with distinctive aberrant color patterns, including albino or amelanistic specimens, may be possessed without a permit otherwise required by this rule.

Florida is the only state on this map that lets a colour morph out of a restriction it applies to the wild-type animal. Trachemys scripta elegans is a conditional nonnative species, which means a permit, with two exceptions written into the entry: an animal in personal possession before 1 July 2007 stays legal, and any slider "with distinctive aberrant color patterns, including albino or amelanistic specimens" may be kept with no permit at all. The logic is ecological rather than about the pet trade: an albino slider that escapes does not survive to establish, so the state has no reason to restrict it. The federal four-inch rule at 21 C.F.R. 1240.62 still applies on top, and Florida writes its own version of it into the grandfather clause.

How this rule works: Florida's nonnative species chapter, and the rule that answers the animals Florida is famous for. 68-5.006 is the prohibited list, and its reptile section is what the 2021 rulemaking rewrote: the yellow, Beni, DeSchauensee's and green anacondas, the brown tree snake, the Burmese, reticulated, Northern African, Southern African, amethystine and scrub pythons, the Nile monitor, the green iguana and the tegus of genera Salvator and Tupinambis. Its mammal section is short and has nothing a pet keeper would want, and its bird section names four. 68-5.007 governs what a prohibited species owner can do, and the answer is close to nothing: personal possession permits are issued only to people who already held the animal before listing, for that animal's life, PIT-tagged, with no new specimens ever. 68-5.004 is the separate conditional list, which for this map means one animal, the red-eared slider.

The possession limit for herptiles (excluding common snapping turtles and bullfrogs) is no more than 4 total per species. ... In no case shall a person possess more than 8 indigenous amphibian or reptiles in total.

The red-eared slider, Trachemys scripta elegans is on the § 885.40 list of Illinois native herptile taxa, which is what puts it inside the cap rather than outside it. No licence is needed to keep one, but three conditions ride along: no more than 4 of the species and no more than 8 indigenous herptiles in total, a sport fishing licence to collect any native taxon from the wild, and a $50 Herpetoculture Permit to breed or to sell. Non-residents may not possess herptiles collected from the wild in Illinois at all except under a scientific collection permit. Illinois is inside the species' natural range, which is why it lands here rather than in the free non-native bucket, and it is the opposite of how states outside that range treat the animal. Turtles other than common snapping turtles may be taken only by hand, and § 30-5 bars commercial turtle farming in the State outright. Illinois is a home rule state, so a municipal ordinance can be stricter than anything above and is often the rule that actually decides this.

How this rule works: The statute behind 17 Ill. Adm. Code 885, and the only Illinois law that reaches pet reptiles and amphibians. § 5-5 sets the possession limits, § 15-5 clears the family Boidae from the permit system outright, § 25-5 defines 'monitor lizards' as only the crocodile monitor and Komodo dragon, and § 85-5 bars possession of a special use herptile. Sections are served individually from this endpoint by DocName, 051000680K<section>.

This section governs the: (1) sale; (2) transport for sale; or (3) offer for sale; of any reptile or amphibian native to Indiana regardless of place of origin. (b) Except as otherwise provided in this section and in section 9 of this rule, an individual must not sell, transport for sale, or offer to sell a reptile or amphibian that is native to Indiana.

The red-eared slider is native to Indiana, which is what decides it, and Indiana's native rule is unusual in reaching a purchased animal. 9-5-7(c) lists Trachemys scripta elegans among the 99 taxa whose sale it governs, and 9-5-7(a) says the section applies "regardless of place of origin", so a captive-bred animal from an out-of-state breeder is caught by it just as a wild-caught one is. Selling, offering for sale or transporting for sale is barred; possessing is not, subject to 9-5-6(f)'s cap of four live animals of any one native species. Two exits exist. 9-5-7(f) exempts a captive-bred animal with albinistic, leucistic or xanthic colour morphology, on the same logic New Jersey uses for corn snake morphs, that a morph is visibly not a wild-caught animal. And 9-5-9 provides a reptile captive breeding licence under which sales are lawful. This is the one that surprises people, because the red-eared slider is the most widely sold pet turtle in the country and Indiana is inside its native range, so the sale bar reaches it. The federal four inch rule under 21 CFR 1240.62 bars hatchling sales nationwide on top of that.

How this rule works: The rule 312 IAC 9-11 does not reach. 9-5-1(b) makes every reptile and amphibian native to Indiana a protected wild animal, 9-5-6(f) caps possession at four per species, and 9-5-7 bars selling a native species "regardless of place of origin" against a list of 99 taxa given by binomial. 9-5-7(f) then exempts captive-bred albinistic, leucistic and xanthic morphs. Indiana's own rules site, iar.iga.in.gov, serves its React shell for every path including its own script bundles, so this is read from Cornell LII and cited to the official section.

no more than five reptiles and no more than two individuals of any reptile species per person and/or domicile, whichever is reached first

The Kansas column was written against K.S.A. 32-1301, the dangerous regulated animal statute, which names six cats, bears and non-native venomous snakes and answers nothing here. The pair that decides a Kansas cell is K.S.A. 32-1002(a)(2), which makes it unlawful to possess any wildlife at all "unless and except as permitted by law or rules and regulations adopted by the secretary", and the two regulations that do the permitting. K.A.R. 115-20-3 permits exotic wildlife, and 115-20-3(d) reads exotic as a species not native or indigenous to Kansas and not present here as an established wild population. The pond slider, Trachemys scripta, is an established Kansas taxon on the Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas, and Kansas is inside the natural range of the red-eared subspecies. It is on neither K.A.R. 115-15-1 nor 115-15-2. A Kansas native is therefore outside 115-20-3 and falls to K.A.R. 115-20-2, which permits taking certain Kansas wildlife for personal use on a noncommercial basis. 115-20-2(b)(13) puts reptiles on that list, with common snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles taken back out, and the open season under (d) is year-round. What the earlier entry missed is the cap in (e): five reptiles and two individuals of any one reptile species, per person and per domicile, whichever is reached first. 115-20-2(f) defines domicile as the address you declare in legal documents to pay taxes, receive social security, vote, bank, and register vehicles and animals, so two people at one address do not get four. Taking one from the wild needs a hunting license, since 115-20-2(i) exempts only invertebrates from that, but K.A.R. 115-9-7(i) exempts the possession of wildlife that was legally acquired by the individual, so a bought animal needs no license to keep. One gap Kansas has never closed: 32-1002(a)(3) bars purchasing or selling any wildlife in this state unless a regulation permits it, 115-20-2 permits taking only on a noncommercial basis, and 32-1002(b) lifts the possession and sale bars for animals legally taken outside this state without saying what that means for one bred in captivity out of state.

How this rule works: 115-20-3 is the permission K.S.A. 32-1002 refers to for anything not native to Kansas. 115-20-2 is the parallel permission for Kansas own wildlife, and it carries caps that 115-20-3 does not: five reptiles and two of any one reptile species per person or domicile. Read from Cornell LII because ksrevisor.gov serves a bot-check loader and both ksoutdoors.gov and www.kdwp.state.ks.us refuse this container outright.

A person may not take, possess, or transport turtles without a resident angling license and a recreational turtle license. ... A person does not need the licenses specified under subdivision 1: ... (2) when buying a turtle at a retail outlet

Turtles are the gap in the 2021 pet reptile rule. Section 97A.401, subd. 8 covers snakes, lizards and salamanders and stops there, so turtles stay under their own older regime, which is a licence requirement with a short list of exemptions rather than a source condition. The retail exemption is what makes a pet slider straightforward: buying one at a retail outlet needs no licence. Taking one from the wild is a different matter and not available, because the only turtles a recreational turtle licence authorises taking are the western painted turtle and the snapping turtle. Minnesota also designates the red-eared slider a regulated invasive species, which the DNR describes as legal to possess, sell, buy and transport but never to release into a free-living state. It is not on the DNR's list of native Minnesota turtles.

How this rule works: Turtles are handled apart from the 2021 snake, lizard and salamander rule and were not included in it. Subd. 1 requires an angling licence plus a recreational turtle licence to take, possess or transport turtles; subd. 2c exempts, among others, buying a turtle at a retail outlet, which is what leaves a pet-shop turtle or tortoise unlicensed.

001.03 Regulated Taking of Reptiles and Amphibians - The provisions of 001.03 apply to all species and subspecies of reptiles and amphibians native to Nebraska except those legally designated as Game species, Nongame Species in Need of Conservation, and Threatened or Endangered species. It shall be unlawful for any person to take, possess, transport, export, process, sell or offer for sale, or ship any reptile or amphibian species defined in this section except as provided in 001.03A. ... 001.03A2 For those individual specimens or parts thereof legally obtained by purchase or consignment from outside of Nebraska, sale, offer of sale and associated transport, possession or processing will be permitted without regard to limits or numbers for the species listed below in 001.03A3 and 001.03A4, provided that such authority shall be contingent upon a persons ability to provide proof of legal acquisition including bill of sale or consignment.

Trachemys scripta is on the three-per-species list at § 001.03A4, which is a mild answer by the standards of this row: several states ban the slider outright as an establishment risk, and Nebraska, where it is native, treats it as an ordinary collectible native. The route that matters for a pet is § 001.03A2: an animal legally bought or consigned from outside Nebraska may be possessed without regard to numbers, provided the keeper can produce proof of lawful acquisition, a bill of sale or a consignment record. So the cap is on collecting, and the receipt is what lifts it. The federal four-inch rule under 21 C.F.R. 1240.62 still applies to hatchlings and is untouched by any of this.

How this rule works: Nebraska renumbered its Game and Parks regulations: what used to be 163 NAC ch. 4 is now Title 166, and captive wildlife has its own chapter 8 rather than a subsection. Anything on this map citing "163 NAC ch. 4, § 008" is pointing at a title that is now called ADMINISTRATION. Chapter 8 has three operative parts. § 001.01B bars retaining any WILD BIRD or WILD MAMMAL in captivity except a listed set of Nebraska natives under a Captive Wildlife Permit. § 001.07A prohibits six species outright, none of them a pet: the Asian raccoon dog, white-tailed and mule deer, red deer, wild pigs and bighorn or thinhorn sheep. And § 001.08A is a closed importation list, which is what actually answers most exotic mammals here, because they are not wild mammals and so the permit scheme never reaches them. Chapter 10 does the same job for reptiles and amphibians and is limited to species native to Nebraska.

Reptiles (Reptilia). All Helodermatidae ...; all front-fanged venomous snakes, even if devenomized ...; all venomous, mid-or rear-fanged, Duvernoy-glanded members of the family Colubridae, even if devenomized; any member, or hybrid offspring of the family Boidae, including, but not limited to, the common or green anaconda and yellow anaconda; any member of the family Pythonidae, including, but not limited to, the African rock python, Indian or Burmese python, Amethystine or scrub python; any member of the family Varanidae, including the white throated monitor, Bosc's or African savannah monitor, Komodo monitor or dragon, Nile monitor, crocodile monitor, water monitor, Bornean earless monitor; any member of the family Iguanidae, including the green or common iguana; any member of the family teiidae, including, but not limited to, the golden, common, or black and white tegu; all members of the family Chelydridae, including snapping turtle and alligator snapping turtle; all turtles and tortoises with a carapace length of less than four (4) inches; and all members of the order Crocodylia ...

New York City draws its turtle line by size rather than by species: the reptile clause ends with "all turtles and tortoises with a carapace length of less than four (4) inches". The red-eared slider is not otherwise named, so an adult is lawful and a hatchling is not, and the animal grows out of the prohibition rather than into it. The four-inch figure is the same one the federal rule at 21 C.F.R. 1240.62 uses, and the reason is the same: small turtles are the ones children put in their mouths. New York State lists this species as a REGULATED invasive under 6 NYCRR Part 575, which is expressly legal to possess, so the state layer adds nothing and the city's four-inch rule is the whole answer. § 161.01(d) is worth knowing alongside the prohibition: a prohibited animal may be seized by any authorized city employee, the owner has three business days to request a hearing, and with the Department's written consent the animal may be removed to a jurisdiction where it is not prohibited. That last provision is the closest thing to relief in the article.

How this rule works: A city rule that is stricter than any state on this map, and it works in three layers. It opens with a standard rather than a list, deeming a wild animal to be "any animal which is naturally inclined to do harm and capable of inflicting harm upon human beings". It then adds, at (b)(ii), any wildlife protected or endangered under federal, STATE or local law, which imports New York State's protected wildlife scheme into the city wholesale. And it closes with 24 numbered clauses that work mostly by family: all cats other than Felis catus and their hybrids, all dogs other than Canis familiaris, all Mustelidae including the ferret by name, all squirrels, all marsupials, all large rodents, all Boidae, all Pythonidae, all Varanidae, all Iguanidae, all teiidae, all Chelydridae, all venomous spiders including the tarantula by name, and all turtles under four inches. § 161.01(c) is the short answer to what is left: gerbil, hamster, guinea pig, domesticated rabbit, and small birds such as parakeet, parrot, canary and finch.

no more than six turtles of each species may be taken per day and no more than six may be kept in possession at one time; ... terrestrial (land) turtles may not be sold; ... no aquatic turtles may be sold or purchased without the proper commercial turtle harvester or buyer's license.

The red-eared slider is an Oklahoma animal and Oklahoma runs a whole commercial turtle regime around it. Three things stack. A hunting or fishing licence is required to take or possess a turtle under 800:25-7-7(2). Possession is capped at six of each species. And no aquatic turtle may be sold or purchased without a commercial turtle harvester or buyer licence, which is what makes buying one locally a conditional act rather than a free one. The species is not on the closed list at 800:25-7-8(5), which covers the alligator snapping turtle, the map turtle, the western chicken turtle and nine others, nor on the commercial prohibition list at 800:15-9-3(2). The federal four inch rule under 21 CFR 1240.62 bars hatchling sales on top of all of it.

How this rule works: The Department's summary of the noncommercial turtle rules, which is where it states its own reading of the box turtle clause: six of each species in possession, and terrestrial turtles may not be sold. The page says outright that it is an interpretive summary and not a legal document.

All persons other than a bona fide researcher, or a licensed pet shops and their transportation agents are prohibited from possessing Red Eared Slider turtles unless they are kept indoors as pets in a manner that will prevent their escape or liberation into the wild. Keeping of these animals in any type of outdoor enclosure is prohibited.

Keepable indoors only, and only a pet shop or a researcher may import one. Pet shops must tell buyers about the indoor requirement at the point of sale.

How this rule works: One of the most species-specific schemes in the country. § 3.6 defines domestic animals, § 3.7 sets general prohibitions, § 3.9 governs permits, and § 3.17 is the long exempt list of animals that need no exotic animal possession permit. Anything not domestic, not native and not on the § 3.17 list needs a permit.

A person without a nongame or nongame dealer’s permit may: (A) possess six or fewer specimens of a species of nongame wildlife listed in §65.331(e) of this title, provided the person does not engage in commercial activity involving the nongame wildlife; and (B) possess 25 or fewer specimens of a species of nongame wildlife listed in §65.331(d) of this title, provided the person does not engage in commercial activity involving the nongame wildlife.

Trachemys scripta is on the § 65.331(e) list, which is the lower tier: six without a permit and no sale, offer for sale, exchange or barter. The slider is native across most of Texas, which is what brings the rule down on it, and the same list names the Big Bend slider separately. The cap reaches captive-bred animals: § 65.325(a) says nongame wildlife "includes captive-bred nongame wildlife", so a pet shop receipt does not lift it. The federal four-inch rule under 21 C.F.R. 1240.62 is the other half of the answer for hatchlings and is unaffected by any of this.

How this rule works: The rule that decides a Texas pet question whenever the animal is native, and the one the dangerous wild animal statute distracts from. § 65.327(a) starts from a prohibition, "no person may collect, acquire, possess, import, export, cause the import or export of, or engage in a commercial activity involving nongame wildlife", and § 65.327(b)(3) then gives an unlicensed keeper two numbers: 25 of a species on the § 65.331(d) list, six of anything else. Three definitions carry the weight. § 65.325(a) says nongame wildlife "includes captive-bred nongame wildlife", so buying from a breeder does not lift the cap. The same sentence limits the subchapter to VERTEBRATE wildlife, which is narrower than the statute it implements, since Parks & Wild. Code § 67.001 says "vertebrate and invertebrate", and that gap is what leaves every terrestrial invertebrate outside the scheme entirely. And § 65.326(2) defines commercial activity as "the sale, offer for sale, exchange, or barter", so buying is not itself commercial activity, and § 65.327(b)(1)(B) lets a permitted dealer "sell lawfully obtained nongame wildlife to anyone". The two species lists are attached figures rather than statutory text: the (d) list names about 100 species, and the (e) list is longer and expressly "not limited to" what it names, so a native species on neither list falls to the six cap.

Red-eared Slider—Trachemys scripta elegans;

A restricted turtle subject to the same two per species limit. Louisiana also bars relocating or releasing sliders off the site where they were caught, and allows landowners to remove nuisance animals only by humane euthanasia.

How this rule works: Rewritten in January 2025 and now one of the strictest reptile rules in the country. Three tiers: prohibited nonnative species, restricted nonnative species needing a permit, and a general rule that any constrictor over eight feet needs a restricted snake permit.

Additionally, persons may possess and hold captive fish, bullfrogs, mussels, aquatic turtles, alligators and other aquatic wildlife in compliance with Code Chapters 26.00, 27.00, 29.00, 30.00, 31.00, 32.00, 33.00, 34.00, 35.00...

An aquatic turtle and native to Arkansas, so it falls under the chapters the unrestricted list defers to rather than under the list itself.

How this rule works: Species exempt from Codes 09.02 (possession of non-native wildlife restricted), 09.07 (breeder/dealer permit) and 09.10 (importation permit), named individually with binomials. Read it out of the codebook rather than the compiled PDF AGFC posted at agfc.com in 2022, which is the version that circulates as "the Arkansas list" and is two revisions behind: it lacks the rosy boa and the whole Anoline Lizards entry with its Arkansas-native exception. The compiled PDF says so itself, that the codebook lists "take precedence".

"Wild animal" means any bird, mammal, reptile, amphibian, or invertebrate that is, or historically has been found, in the wild or in the wild state, and that is not otherwise a domestic animal

The regulation gives one answer and a statute in the same chapter may give another. Under § 26-55-6 the red-eared slider is in none of the four categories: the only turtles Connecticut names are its own spotted turtle and diamond-backed terrapin, both Category Three, and Trachemys appears nowhere, so the regulation does not restrict it. But Conn. Gen. Stat. § 26-78 deals with turtles separately, and it is reported to bar importing, buying, selling and exchanging red-eared sliders. That section could not be read here: cga.ct.gov refuses every connection from this container, through curl, through a headless browser and through the CGA's own search service, and no reproduction was reachable either. Recorded unclear rather than legal because the regulation alone is not the whole chapter, and rather than banned because the text behind that claim has not been read. Subsection (b)(6) separately bars liberating any wild animal, which is not in doubt. Reading § 26-78 is the one thing left open in Connecticut.

How this rule works: Connecticut's official eRegulations text, served as a PDF. This is the operative rule for every animal on this map, and it sorts wild animals into four categories. Category One (four mammal families) and Category Two (a long specific list) may be possessed only by institutions; Category Three, which is Connecticut's own native species, bars import and export but not possession; Category Four, the state endangered, threatened and special concern species, needs a permit. An animal in none of the four is not restricted by this section. The definitions in subsection (a) do more work than the lists: 'wild animal' reaches invertebrates, and 'domestic animal' is defined in a way that takes the pet rabbit and the ferret out of the scheme entirely.

The take or possession of any native West Virginia reptile or amphibian species not listed hereafter is prohibited pursuant to W. Va. Code 20-2-4.

The red-eared slider is the one West Virginia cell where nativity is itself the question, and both answers to it are restrictive, which is why this is grey rather than green. WVDNR publishes its turtle checklist under a heading of native species and the red-eared slider, Trachemys scripta elegans, is the last name on it, beside the woodland box turtle and the snapping turtle. If the department reads its own checklist as settling nativity, and that is how the corn snake, gartersnake, milksnake, kingsnake, hognose and box turtle cells here were decided, then § 58-73-1.1 prohibits this animal: the rule’s section 4 list of what may be taken or possessed runs to ten bait salamanders, two frogs and two turtles, the eastern spiny softshell and the snapping turtle, and the slider is not on it. If instead the department treats the slider as introduced rather than native, because its natural range stops well west of West Virginia, then it is an exotic reptile and § 20-2-13 applies to it like every other exotic reptile in this column: no possession within the state of live wildlife from without the state except under an importation permit from the director. Banned on one reading and permit on the other, and no West Virginia text distinguishes native from established.

How this rule works: The department own checklist, which is what 58-73 nativity turns on. Six lizards, none of them an anole: eastern six-lined racerunner, northern coal skink, common five-lined skink, broad-headed skink, eastern fence lizard, little brown skink. Twenty-two snakes including the cornsnake, eastern gartersnake, eastern milksnake and eastern kingsnake. Thirteen turtles and one subspecies, the woodland box turtle among them.