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Hi,I have been a member for a while and thought that I had posted pictures of my RES,but I could not find any posts by me.Anyway,I found my RES friend of the last 44 years,dead and bloated,floating on the surface of the outside pond that I had let her enjoy for the past three weeks or so.After seeing the one post of a 61 year old RES,I was wondering what an average age would be for one to live?
I got a quarter sized turtle from the teenage girl,next door,when she went to a fair and her date won one for her.She did not want him,so gave him to the little six year old neighbor boy,next door,me.My mom was afraid that Chawlie,the first turtle,an eastern river cooter,would be lonely,so we went down to Monkey Wards (Montgomery Wards,but they had spider monkeys in a cage at the front window) and got another quarter sized turtle,Erbert,my RES.
Through the years,they were always at my parents' house until they started snowbirding to Arizona and then the turtles went to live with my sister and her husband.They eventually came back to live with me and had a great life with a huge tank and nice sunning rock,but during the heat of the summer,I would let them spend some time outside in the pond in my front yard.The water is green and full of algae,but there are fish in there so I figured the turtles would be ok.
I am wondering,do you think the algae could have killed her?
I immediately pulled Chawlie from the pond,rinsed him off and put him back in the tank.

sorry for your loss. wow, 44 years? it could be from a number of factors. did you see irregular behavior from your RES? it could be from the temperature change (from being in an indoor enclosure to an outdoor pond). it could be RI. not sure about algae.how about the cooter, is it showing signs of being ill as well?

Terribly sorry for your loss! 44 years is a definite nice long life for a RES. I don't know much about them, how long they live in a natural environment and such, but I know 40 years is a number that seems to be tossed around a lot. I hope Chawlie stays healthy! I gather he's around the same age?

Sorry for you loss. In 44 years, that turtle had a long happy life and probably better off than 99.9% of turtles out there.

I am very sorry for your loss. 44 years sounds like quite a life for Erbert.

Sorry for your loss. Algae isn't usually considered harmful for RES.

I agree with the others, I think she had a nice, long life. It's rare for people to have RES half her age.

Thanks for the nice words.Chawlie is doing fine and actually seems to be more active without Erbert,as she always picked on him when they were both inside in the water,she would bite him very hard and actually removed some of his long front toenails.
Erbert was a bit of a pig when it came to eating and I can only think that maybe she ate some of the maple tree leaves that had blown into the pond,but who knows.She even had a soft spot on her shell,between two plates that had been there for about fifteen years.It never got any bigger,but never went away,either.
Does anybody know how long eastern river cooters live?For years I thought that Chawlie was a western Oregon pond turtle,a protected species,but then I found a site that showed all KINDS of turtle species and figured out what he really was.
Does anyone else here have a really old RES or any water turtle,besides Pokey,the 61 year old?

I would expect eastern river cooters to have a similar life span and I don't recall any specific study regarding their life spans. As for 20+ year old turtles... I would guess there have been 6-12 of them here.

Oh my gosh, how heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing.
Monkey Wards...I remember calling it that.
Green algae, which it sounds like what you are referring is usually harmless, as Steve mentioned. Brown algae is a different story.
I am glad Erbert started out under your care and wound up back with you.
44 years is a very long time regardless of where she lived. What an awesome gal Erbert must have been.
I am sending my best wishes to you and Chawlie.