First record of the freshwater turtle Trachemys scripta scripta from the River Shannon

A single live individual of a freshwater turtle, the Yellow-bellied Slider Trachemys scripta scripta (Schoepff, 1792), of 18.5 cm carapace length, was found to the south of the Killaloe Bridge, on the Co. Tipperary shore of the River Shannon, on 15 April 2011 (R707722). The specimen was confirmed using Bringsoe (2006) and identity further confirmed by John Davenport. There are three sub-species present in Europe. This particular sub-species lacks a red patch, but has a yellow blotch, behind each eye. It has a uniform yellow plastron with two distinct dark spots on each of the two most anterior scutes. The turtle was captured with a fish landing net in shallows near to the river bank within the boatshed and removed by Michael Kelly. This is the first record from the Shannon River. There are only two other confirmed records in Ireland in the wild, from the River Dodder, Dublin, reported by Don Cotton and from the northern side of Ballysadare Bay, Co. Sligo reported by Brian Clifford (NBDC 2011).