And David has kindly written 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 and 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 and west to the Mississippi Valley and 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 and many parts of Europe. It cannot today, 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 and 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 but I refer you particularly to The Turtle Pages, the source of my information, for additional detail.

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