Posted by:
casichelydia
at Sat Sep 3 21:26:28 2005 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by casichelydia ]
Indeed it can pay off to be a casual guesser sometimes. Older female redears can be problematic to identify because they don't have the rather habitual trend of melanism that males seem to.
If we considered many of the Caribbean Trachemys, identifying males and females alike would be substantially more difficult than it currently is since, in the live animal trade, only North, Central, and South American species tend to be of concern. These have patterns that tend to be slightly more diagnostic.
What complicated things with identification on this turtle is that it is an old specimen with what would likely be called "pastel" coloration - very abnormal gular and leg striping, plus the red ears are split in half on each side.
The eyes are still very typical of redears where this specimen hails from - East Baton Rouge Parsih. Very, very green.
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and the winner is... - casichelydia, Sat Sep 3 21:26:28 2005