This Red-eared Slider was crossing the auto tour road at the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. I made a blog post twice before regarding reasons these turtles are out of the water. The first blog post I made, I thought could be a Red-eared Slider Searching For New Habitat and the second post was of a Red-eared Slider Laying Eggs. This time I think it was looking for a new habitat.
Red-eared Sliders leave the water and travel across land for several reasons, including:
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Basking: They need to warm themselves under the sun to regulate their body temperature and metabolism.
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Nesting: Female Red-eared Sliders will leave the water to find a suitable location to lay their eggs.
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Exploring: They may leave the water to explore their surroundings and search for food or mates.
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Fleeing danger: They may leave the water to escape predators or adverse conditions in their aquatic habitat.
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Thermoregulation: Red-eared Sliders will move between sun-exposed and shaded areas to regulate their body temperature.
These are just a few of the reasons why Red-eared Sliders might leave the water and travel across land.
Gear Used:
- Camera: Fujifilm X-T3
- Lens: Canon EF 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS II USM (attached with a Fringer EF-FX Pro)
Technical:
While driving the auto tour road near Reeve’s Slough I saw this turtle crossing the road. I had to exit my pickup to get the photo. I was hand-holding my camera.
- Location: Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge (Oklahoma)
- Date and Time Taken: June 5, 2020 (07:58:01 A.M.)
- Aperture Priority
- Aperture: f8.0
- Shutter speed: 1/140 sec. (as determined by the camera)
- ISO: 2000
- White Balance: Auto
- Metering Mode: Multi
- Exposure Compensation: +0.33 EV
- Back-button Focus
- Single Point Focus
- Focal Length: 200 mm
- Processed With Luminar 4