The Florida red-bellied cooter (Pseudemys nelsoni) is a freshwater turtle of the family Emydidae that owes its name to the characteristic reddish tone of its plastron.
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Reptilia |
| Order | Testudines |
| Family | Emydidae |
| Genus | Pseudemys |
| Species | Pseudemys nelsoni |
The Florida red-bellied cooter (Pseudemys nelsoni) is a freshwater turtle of the family Emydidae that owes its name to the characteristic reddish tone of its plastron. It also has two pointed cusps on the upper beak, which are uncommon among emydid turtles.
The shell measures between 20 and 37.5 cm; females are clearly larger than males, reaching about 30 cm and 4 kg compared with the males' 25 cm and 1.8 kg.
It is native to Florida and southern Georgia (United States), where it inhabits a wide variety of freshwater environments and, occasionally, brackish water.
It is mostly herbivorous, feeding on aquatic plants such as American waterweed, duckweed and arrowhead, as well as algae; juveniles eat more insects before moving on to a plant-based diet.
The sex of the hatchlings depends on the incubation temperature, with a pivotal temperature of around 28.5 °C. Unusually, it sometimes lays its eggs in alligators' own nest mounds, taking advantage of their warmth and protection.
It is active all year round and spends a good part of the day basking on logs, a behaviour that helps regulate its body temperature and get rid of parasites.
