Trachemys gaigeae
Silhouette: DataBase Center for Life Science (DBCLS) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The Big Bend slider (Trachemys gaigeae), also called commonly the Mexican Plateau slider and la jicotea de la meseta mexicana in Mexican Spanish, is a species of aquatic turtle in the family Emydidae. The species is native to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
The species Trachemys gaigeae was first described by professor of zoology at the University of Michigan, Dr. Norman Edouard Hartweg, in 1939, as a subspecies, Pseudemys scripta gaigeae. Later, it was assigned to the genus Chrysemys, then to the genus Trachemys. Most recently, it was granted full species status, though many sources still refer to it by its various synonyms.
The Nazas slider (T. hartwegi) of the Nazas River in northern Mexico was formerly considered a subspecies of T. gaigeae, but was reclassified as a distinct species by the Turtle Taxonomy Working Group and the Reptile Database in 2021.
T. gaigeae is native to the United States in the states of New Mexico and Texas, and to northern Mexico in the state of Chihuahua. It is found primarily in the Rio Grande and Rio Concho. The epithet, gaigeae, is in honor of American herpetologist Helen Beulah... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recreativo San Jorge | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Big Bend Slider sighting in Big Bend National Park on a given day, based on 185 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 22nd most-seen of the 48 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Big Bend Slider in Big Bend National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June to August, the lowest months. That is one of Big Bend National Park's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain against 50 mm in September.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Big Bend Slider sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Big Bend National Park, in our data
Big Bend National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Big Bend Slider sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Big Bend Slider is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Big Bend National Park (185 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
