BUT... many years ago now, 'David' wrote to me to tell me that the turtle is a red-eared slider. He describes it as being the most common turtle in the world. Thanks for the input, David!

With David's identification, I now learn that the scientific name of the turtle is Trachemys scripta elegans & that this particular turtle is raised in vast numbers each year for the pet trade. It is native to the Eastern United States from Florida to Illinois & west to the Mississippi Valley & grows to 11 inches in size with females generally being bigger than males. But feral populations are now found in many countries of the world including Australia, South Africa & many parts of Europe. For many years it cannot, I learn, be legally imported into the European Union because of its effect on native turtle populations. As you can see well in the image, there is a red or red-orange stripe behind the eye & yellow stripes on the chin. I was interested to read that in the wild, sliders rarely live to be twenty years old but there have been records of sliders living for over 40 years in captivity. There are many turtle websites. I used to refer you particularly to 'The Turtle Pages', the source of my information years ago, for additional detail, but in 2009, as this site must move to a new location, the site is gone & I cannot find its new location.

I read in early Mar. 2002 that Mike Conley of Overland Park, Kansas, had a red-eared slider turtle (named Tiger) that was bought for him as a baby by his parents forty years ago. It was then almost as big as a dinner plate. The small article that I read said that the previous age record for such a turtle was just under 38 years. That data conflicts with my words above & I do not know which is the more accurate. But the information is, none the less, interesting.