Turtles
There are only a few wet places in the park where turtles are found.  Though through the rainy season, it could be possible to find one out in the desert wandering between wet spots.  In the Rio Grande, the most common species would be the Big Bend slider.  This is a subspecies of the well-known Red-eared slider.  Also found along the river is the spiny softshell turtle, the yellow mud turtle, and in very small numbers, a new species found in 2005, the Rio Grande river cooter.  Though the Texas tortoise is on the park's checklist they are not found regularly enough in Big Bend to be considered resident.  One species that we hope to learn more about in Big Bend is the ornate box turtle once they were not considered resident though a few recent sightings have suggested the opposite.