Kinosternon flavescens
(Agassiz, 1857)
Hidalgo Co., Texas. February 23, 1994.
Bill Sielschott (my father-in-law) and I were walking down a trail at Laguna Atascosa when we saw a small pothole of a pond off to one side. I said “Hey, let’s check that out – looks like a good place for yellow muds.” When we reached the pond’s edge, we could see the bottom under about a foot or so of water, and sure enough, there was indeed a Kinosternon flavescens trundling about. I waded in and plucked her right off the bottom! Needless to say I was feeling pretty smug about the whole thing – it’s not every day you can make a call like that! We took a few pictures and then I returned the turtle to the pond.
The Kinosternon flavescens pictured here was found crossing the road near Marathon, Texas, in 2016. There was no visible water in sight; this species is tough, spending a great portion of any given year buried in the mud, waiting for the rains to return.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
