Big bend slider

Big Bend Slider
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Subclass:	Anapsida
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Testudinoidea
Family:	Emydidae
Genus:	Trachemys
Species:	T. gaigeae
Binomial name
Trachemys gaigeae Hartweg, 1939
Synonyms
Pseudemys scripta gaigae Hartweg, 1939 Chrysemys scripta gaigeae Fritz, 1981 Trachemys scripta gaigae Stebbins, 1985 Pseudemys gaigeae Seidel, Painter & Sterns, 1999

The Big Bend Slider (Trachemys gaigeae) is a species of aquatic turtle native to the United States in the states of New Mexico and Texas, and northern Mexico in the state of Chihuahua. It is found primarily in the Rio Grande and Rio Conchos river systems. The epithet gaigeae is in honor of the American herpetologist, Helen Beulah Thompson Gaige, who collected the first specimen in the Big Bend region of Texas in 1928.^[1] The species was first described by professor of zoology at the University of Michigan, Dr. Norman Edouard Hartweg in 1939. It was for a time considered to be a species of Cooter, genus Pseudemys, and then a subspecies of the Pond Slider, Trachemys scripta, but it was granted full species status, though many sources still refer to it by its various synonyms.

Behavior

Primarily aquatic, they are often seen basking on rocks or logs in the water, and when approached quickly dive to the bottom. They only time they spend a large amount of time on land is when the females emerge to lay their eggs. They are an omnivorous species, with younger animals being more carnivorous, and progressively becoming more herbivorous as they age, with older adults being nearly entirely herbivorous. Adults 5 to 11 inches long.

Subspecies

• Trachemys gaigeae gaigeae (Hartweg, 1939)
• Trachemys gaigeae hartwegi (Legler, 1990)

References

• Species Trachemys gaigeae at The Reptile Database

• Stebbins RC (2003) Western Reptiles and Amphibians, Peterson Field Guides