Pond slider

Sliders spend warm days basking, often stacked on top of one another, and drop into the water when anything approaches. Males have long front claws, which they flutter in front of a female's face in courtship. Females leave the water in spring and summer and may walk a long way to find a sunny patch of soil to nest in.

Sliders graze water plants and scavenge dead fish, and their eggs and young feed raccoons, herons, snakes and fish. Because they are common and easy to see, they are often the first turtle a child learns to recognise.

Nest — Dug by the female in soil, often well away from water
Eggs — Usually 6 to 20, in one to several clutches a year
Incubation — About 60 to 90 days; temperature decides the sex of each hatchling
Hatchlings — Some emerge in autumn; others spend the winter in the nest and emerge in spring
Maturity — Males in 2 to 5 years, females in 5 to 8
Lifespan — Over 30 years in the wild

• A turtle crossing a road can be helped across in the direction it was heading, held by the sides of the shell.
• A female digging in a lawn in spring is laying eggs; leaving her alone is all she needs.
• Never release a pet turtle. Released red-eared sliders compete with native turtles and can carry disease.

• A turtle away from water is lost. Females travel overland to nest, sometimes hundreds of metres, and know where they are going.
• The red-eared slider is Georgia's native turtle. The native form here is the yellow-bellied slider; red-eared sliders were brought by the pet trade.

• River cooter
• Coastal plain cooter
• Painted turtle