Cooter Cuteness! Watch as this beautiful little Coastal Plain Cooter (Pseudemys floridana) hatches from its egg. This is just one of a large clutch of eggs hatched by TSA Director of Animal Management Cris Hagen this week! As its name aptly describes, the Coastal Plain Cooter is native to the Coastal Plain of the Southeast United States, from southeastern Virginia to extreme southeastern Mississippi, and throughout North Florida. This species is one of the many that inhabit lakes, ponds, and swa

The beginning of the end? Maybe not! A Red-bellied Cooter almost escaped but the Alligator snatched him back up. While somberly and respectfully watching this unfold, a man stopped, looked and to our shock he yelled and flailed his arms startling the gator into the water. He said he wanted the gator to drop the turtle. In the wild, NEVER interfere with a predator and its prey. Not only is it illegal, most times the prey animal will die slowly from infection or internal injuries already sustained