Painted Turtle vs. Pond Slider

The two turtles most often seen basking together on Indiana ponds. Look behind the eye: a Pond Slider (the Red-eared Slider) has a red patch there; a Painted Turtle has only yellow stripes. The shell confirms it: a Painted Turtle's is smooth, flat and dark, with red bars around the edge and no pattern on top, while a Slider's has yellow bars on every plate. Turned over, a Painted Turtle's underside is plain yellow to orange; a Slider's has a dark smudge on each plate. Old male sliders can darken almost to black and lose the red patch.

Photographs via iNaturalist under Creative Commons licences; the photographers are credited on the sheet.

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Wildsight identifies the reptiles and amphibians of the United States. Every comparison