Can red ear sliders breed with other turtles..like snapping turtles etc?..?

Answer 1

The definition of a species is a group of animals that cannot successfully breed with another group, no matter how closely they may otherwise resemble each other.

Briefly, animals are organized by:
- Kingdom (turtles are in the animal kingdom)
- Phylum (turtles are Chordata)
- Class (turtles are Reptilia)
- Order (turtles are Testudines- the turtle's)
- Family (Red-ears are Emydidea, Snappers are Chelydridea)
- Genus (Red ears are Trachemys, Snappers are Chelydra)
- Species (Red-ears are Trachemys scripta, Common snappers are Chelydra serpentina)
- Sub-species (Red-ear- T. s. elegans, Common snapper- C. s. serpentina)

Now- think of each level as a series of hurdles or obstacles- the further up the level is, the bigger the hurdle.

Animals can mate pretty easily between sub-species. 'Trachemys scripta elegans' (Red-ear slider) can mate with 'Trachemys scripta scripta' (Yellow-belly slider) pretty easily- if they live close enough together.

Animals can sometimes mate between species- sometimes. It rarely results in fertile off-spring, but it sometimes happens. (We also sometimes make mistakes in thinking two animals are different species when they are really different sub-species, etc.)

The higher the 'obstacles', the less likely it will work.

Snappers may look sorta like Red-ears, but they are not very closely related genetically- it is sort of like the difference between humans and spider monkeys!

Answer 2

no, they are different species