Rio Grande cooter

The Rio Grande cooter (Pseudemys gorzugi) is a species of turtle in the family Emydidae. The species is native to northeastern Mexico and the adjacent southwestern United States.

Geographic range

The Rio Grande cooter is found in the Rio Grande drainage of Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas), New Mexico, and Texas. In the Texas portion of the Pecos River, an approximately 390 kilometer distributional gap exists from Loving and Reeves counties into Crockett County, possibly due to unsuitable conductivity levels. A record from near the San Saba River in Menard County, Texas has been confirmed as erroneous.

Habitat

The preferred natural habitat of P. gorzugi is freshwater wetlands, at altitudes of .

Reproduction

Female P. gorzugi lay one to two clutches per year, with clutches ranging from 5–17 eggs.

Diet

Pseudemys gorzugi are omnivorous, but the relative importance of animal and plant food items varies across populations, sexes, and age groups.

Etymology

The specific name, gorzugi, is in honor of , the Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles at the National Museum of Natural History.

References

External links

Further reading

• (1990). "Pseudemys gorzugi Ward, Rio Grande Cooter". Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (461): 1–2. (Pseudemys gorzugi, new status).
• Ernst CH, (2009). Turtles of the United States and Canada, Second Edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xii + 827 pp. . (Pseudemys gorzugi, pp. 377–380).
• Powell R, Conant R, Collins JT (2016). Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Fourth Edition. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. xiv + 494 pp., 47 plates, 207 figures. . (Pseudemys gorzugi, pp. 214–215, Figure 95).
• Ward JP (1984). "Relationships of the chrysemyd turtles of North America (Testudines: Emydidae)". Special Publications of the Museum of Texas Technological University 21: 1-50. (Pseudemys concinna gorzugi, new subspecies, p. 29, figure 6).