Shocking Video Provides Undeniable Evidence That Red-Eared Slider Turtles Hunt Ducklings

Apart from the dinosaur-like snapping turtle, we don’t typically think of freshwater turtles as eating much beyond a few insects, fish, and amphibians. While they may scavenge dead animals they find, active hunting seemed less likely, but an eye-opening video has changed all of that.  

In April 2023, Alex Landry (joined by Gabrielle Mandill) was recording a pond in Mandeville, Louisiana, when something shocking happened. A rather unlucky hen was trying to keep her ducklings together while some males fought to mate with her (which is thought to be why they’ve evolved corkscrew-shaped vaginas) when an unexpected threat pulled up to the side of the pond. 

I did not know exactly how unusual or rare it was, but being a huge turtle nerd, I had never seen or heard of ducklings being grabbed by red-eared sliders like that.

Brad Glorioso

A female red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) emerged from the water and was lurking near the ducklings who either didn’t notice or seem to care. Shame, because just a few minutes later the turtle snatched a duckling and dragged it underwater, drowning it. The hen spotted the abduction and stomped her feet on the turtle’s back, but the duckling wasn’t seen again.

A very bad day for that mother duck.

Landry showed the footage to ecologist Brad “Bones” Glorioso of the US Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center. Safe to say, it caught his attention.

“I told him immediately that is a very interesting observation,” Glorioso told IFLScience. “I did not know exactly how unusual or rare it was, but being a huge turtle nerd, I had never seen or heard of ducklings being grabbed by red-eared sliders like that.”

“I looked into what I could find of similar occurrences. It appeared to be quite rarely reported, as I only found the one report where they are invasive in Europe. And in that case, they state in their paper they got only a photo of a turtle shape disappearing in cloudy water and not the attack or anything like what Alex was able to record on video! I told him then that I may be able to help him get it published if he were interested. He was interested.”

The subsequent paper explains that this kind of behavior is well documented in snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina), but that this marks the first undeniable and documented video evidence that adult red-eared sliders opportunistically attack live ducklings. A bit of a shocking revelation as it was thought they drifted more toward a herbivorous lifestyle as they got older, but not so according to this female.

It could be that it’s a response to limited resources, and getting enough nutrition would’ve been especially important for this female as it was filmed during egg-laying season. Over the coming weeks, the mother duck would lose five more ducklings and while it can’t be known if the turtles were behind it (there are many, many things that like to snack on ducklings), the authors state that it’s plausible.

“I am not sure how often this occurs, but it undoubtedly occurs,” added Glorioso. “Perhaps it is more of a phenomenon in more anthropogenically altered habitats. And perhaps, in these habitats, due to a lack of resources turtles will do what they need to for survival. Red-eared Sliders are invasive all over the world and having a wide breadth in diet is a contributing factor to its success in foreign places.”

There have been anecdotal reports of sliders predating on ducklings in the past, and the authors spotted other videos on social media (plus some tortoises were seen snacking on birds), but this research is among the first to formally record and analyze this behavior in red-eared sliders. The video evidence has now been archived in the Florida Museum of Natural History, so the jig’s up, “herbivorous” turtles. We know what you’ve done.

The paper is published in Southeastern Naturalist.