Behold: The Cooter

'Cooters are aquatic turtles that live in non-flowing bodies of water, such as lakes, ponds, and swamps.' (AI Overview) They eat plants and can live up to 40 years. They are endemic to North America. This one is most likely a 'Florida red-bellied cooter, spotted today happily sunning itself at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens here in Gainesville. The name 'Cooter' comes from 'kuta', which is the word for turtle in the Bambara and Malinke languages and was brought to America by enslaved people from the African continent.