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Fun Facts
Did You Know?
"Cooter" probably comes from the Bambara and Malinké word "kuta," which means turtle. West African languages brought to North America by enslaved people contributed the word to the regional English of the southeastern United States, where "cooter" became the standard common name for several species of large freshwater turtles in the genus Pseudemys. In parts of the South, "cooter" means any big basking turtle. In North Louisiana, if someone points at a log full of turtles and says "look at all those cooters," they are almost certainly looking at river cooters, though red-eared sliders and…
If This Animal Could Talk...
"Watch closely, respect my space, and let my habitat explain the rest of the story."
Every bayou, every river, every lake in North Louisiana that holds permanent water and a fallen log holds river cooters. They are the large, dark-shelled turtles stacked three and four deep on every sun-exposed log in the Ouachita River, the ones that slide off into the water the instant you get within fifty yards, the ones that make you wonder how an animal that size can disappear so completely into a river that was calm and visible thirty seconds ago. River cooters are everywhere in North Louisiana, they are always basking, and they are never willing to let you get a good look.
Pseudemys concinna concinna — the Eastern River Cooter — is the only subspecies that occurs in Louisiana, and Glorioso’s Louisiana herps site lists them as statewide. He has observed them in nearly all sizable permanent water bodies across the state. That tracks with what anyone who has spent time on North Louisiana’s rivers already knows: if the water is permanent and the log gets sun, there are cooters on it.
A Few More Facts
How they hunt and forage: River cooters are primarily herbivores, which is unusual for North Louisiana turtles — most of the others lean omnivore or carnivore. Adult river cooters eat aquatic plants, algae, and grasses that grow in and along the water. Coontail, duckweed, pondweed, filamentous algae, and the leaves of overhanging vegetation all show up in the diet. They have tooth-like cusps in the upper jaw that help shred fibrous plant material, an adaptation that the more omnivorous sliders and painted turtles lack. Juveniles eat more animal protein than adults. Young river cooters supplement the plant diet with aquatic insects, snails, crawfish, and occasionally small fish or tadpoles. As they grow, the diet shifts toward an increasingly herbivorous menu. A ten-inch adult river cooter in the Ouachita River eats plants almost exclusively, grazing on submerged vegetation the way a cow grazes a pasture, except the cow does not sprint to the bottom of a river when startled.
Live birth or eggs? no
When young are born: Hatchlings generally emerge in August or September and head for the water immediately.
What Is the River Cooter Often Confused With?
River cooters are big turtles. Females — the larger sex — can reach 13 inches in carapace length, which makes them one of the largest freshwater turtles in North Louisiana behind only alligator snapping turtles and common snapping turtles. Males are smaller, usually topping out around 10 inches, and have longer front claws and longer, thicker tails. The carapace is dark greenish-brown to nearly black, often with a pattern of lighter concentric markings on each scute that fades with age. Young river cooters have a distinct "C"-shaped marking on the second costal scute, facing toward the tail — a useful identification feature on juveniles that becomes harder to see as the turtle grows and the shell darkens. Old adults can look almost uniformly dark, especially when covered in algae, which they usually are.
Drag the handle left and right to compare River Cooter side by side with the species it gets mistaken for most.
Open the visual comparison tool
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Accessibility
Accessibility
River cooters are primarily a visual experience — the sight of large turtles stacked on logs, the splash of turtles hitting water when spooked, and the slow re-emergence as they haul back out to bask. No vocalizations, no sounds except the splash. For visitors who are blind or have low vision, the most accessible aspect of river cooters is the sound of the mass bail — a series of heavy splashes in quick succession as an entire log's worth of turtles evacuates. That sound, heard from a riverbank or boat, is distinctive and unmistakable.
Observing river cooters requires patience, binoculars, and distance. Any river, large bayou, or lake in North Louisiana with permanent water and basking logs will have them. The Ouachita River, Bayou D'Arbonne, and Black Bayou Lake are all reliable locations. Go early on a warm morning, find a spot with a view of exposed logs, sit still, and wait. The turtles will come.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does River Cooters live in North Louisiana?
Yes. Every bayou, every river, every lake in North Louisiana that holds permanent water and a fallen log holds river cooters. River cooters are everywhere in North Louisiana, they are always basking, and they are never willing to let you get a good look. That tracks with what anyone who has spent time on North Louisiana's rivers already knows: if the water is permanent and the log gets sun, there are cooters on it
How do you identify River Cooters?
River cooters are big turtles. Females — the larger sex — can reach 13 inches in carapace length, which makes them one of the largest freshwater turtles in North Louisiana behind only alligator snapping turtles and common snapping turtles. Males are smaller, usually topping out around 10 inches, and have longer front claws and longer, thicker tails
What does River Cooters eat?
What They Eat
River cooters are primarily herbivores, which is unusual for North Louisiana turtles — most of the others lean omnivore or carnivore. Adult river cooters eat aquatic plants, algae, and grasses that grow in and along the water. Coontail, duckweed, pondweed, filamentous algae, and the leaves of overhanging vegetation all show up in the diet. They have tooth-like cusps in the upper jaw that help shred fibrous plant material, an adaptation that the more omnivorous sliders and painted turtles lack.
Juveniles eat more animal protein than adults. Young river cooters supplement the plant diet with aquatic insects, snails, crawfish, and occasionally small fish or tadpoles. As they grow, the diet shifts toward an increasingly herbivorous menu. A ten-inch adult river cooter in the Ouachita River eats plants almost exclusively, grazing on submerged vegetation the way a cow grazes a pasture, except the cow does not sprint to the bottom of a river when startled.
Feeding happens underwater. River cooters cannot swallow out of water — they lack the tongue mechanics to move food down the throat without water to assist — so everything they eat goes into the mouth submerged. They will leave the water to retrieve a particularly appealing item and bring it back to the water to swallow, but the actual eating happens below the surface. A river cooter grazing in a shallow backwater area, pulling up aquatic plants with its jaws and chewing in slow, rhythmic bites, is worth watching if you can find a vantage point far enough away that the turtle does not bolt.
Is River Cooters dangerous to people?
Nesting is the most dangerous thing a female river cooter does all year, and she does it multiple times. Leaving the water means leaving the safety of depth, speed, and the ability to disappear. A 13-inch female river cooter on land moves slowly, is conspicuous against soil or grass, and has no escape route other than walking back to the water at turtle speed
