Turtle Biodiversity
There are 3 different species of cooters in Texas and usually you know which you are looking at by your location. Unless you are in DFW. The range map of 2 of them overlap here. Which makes it very challenging for me. I often run my shots by Texas turtle experts to be sure. In this shot you have two River cooters, one on the far left and one on the far right. The middle two are Texas cooters. And there is also the possibility that some interbreeding is going on which results in really strange looking cooters that are probably intergrades with DNA from both species. My turtle expert friends are planning on getting dna samples to find out just what is up with these strange individuals. I'm finally starting to get better at identifying. I suspected the middle two were texana based on the details of the yellow head & neck markings, the shape of the heads and the way the eyes looked.
Male Texas Cooters (Pseudemys texana)
Male River Cooter (Pseudemys concinna)
My photos can also be found at kapturedbykala.com
Turtle Biodiversity
There are 3 different species of cooters in Texas and usually you know which you are looking at by your location. Unless you are in DFW. The range map of 2 of them overlap here. Which makes it very challenging for me. I often run my shots by Texas turtle experts to be sure. In this shot you have two River cooters, one on the far left and one on the far right. The middle two are Texas cooters. And there is also the possibility that some interbreeding is going on which results in really strange looking cooters that are probably intergrades with DNA from both species. My turtle expert friends are planning on getting dna samples to find out just what is up with these strange individuals. I'm finally starting to get better at identifying. I suspected the middle two were texana based on the details of the yellow head & neck markings, the shape of the heads and the way the eyes looked.
Male Texas Cooters (Pseudemys texana)
Male River Cooter (Pseudemys concinna)
My photos can also be found at kapturedbykala.com