RELOCATING A RED-EARED SLIDER FROM THE STREET TO OUR BACK YARD.

My sister-in-law, who was staying with us overnight with her husband, saw what I thought was a Painted Turtle in the road but thanks to Linda at Linda’s Relaxing Lair, I now know that our little turtle is a Red-eared Slider (an explanation of the difference is below this post). Thank you so much Linda, I appreciate the correct ID.  It was near the drain in front of our house, and she asked her brother to come and move it to a safer location. Where she lives, my sister-in-law is also a trained volunteer who looks after the sea turtles when they come out of the water to lay their eggs. She and other volunteers take it in turn to guard those eggs until they hatch, whereupon those baby turtles instinctively make their way down to the ocean. 

The last turtle I saw around here was in our garden a couple of years ago, I can't remember exactly. It was in our flower bed in the front of the house. 

Gregg has never picked up a turtle before. He put it in our back garden, a short journey with plenty of room for the little guy to go a safer route than the street. 

I thought it would be a good idea to look through a few websites to know how to pick them up properly if it ever happened again. 

Below there are several sites for doing just that if anyone is interested. You can cut and paste the addresses for more info:

YouTube on how to properly pick up a tortoise:

https://youtu.be/Yz37w9ZNclA?si=pwk8tbYX_sq1xUqL

Websites:

https://www.matts-turtles.org/handling-turtles.html

How to pick up a snapping turtle.

https://www.ncwildlife.gov/species/common-snapping-turtle#

and a YouTube also on snapping turtles:

https://youtube.com/shorts/oUeGpqg5ig0?si=d04ylT4IPIlrjCT2

We ourselves are learning that we are never too old to learn something new, and I also thank Linda again for her ID of our little turtle. This is one of the many reasons I enjoy blogging so much. Our community is like a family and we are always helping each other out. 

Thanks for visiting and enjoy your day!

Invasive red-eared sliders are named for the streaks of red found along the sides of their heads. They also have dark-green skin with bright yellow streaks throughout. Native painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) look similar, but don’t have those same red streaks, and their shells tend to be flatter and smoother on top.

I got my information, and more, from a website called Wildlife NYC.