Cooter crisis in Citrus County

Saturday, October 27, 2007

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This red eared cooter is non-native to Florida and is banned at the Cooter Festival.

CITRUS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- The annual Great American Cooter Festival is underway in Inverness, but this year's event is under a cloud of controversy.

City officials say they've been inadvertently using the wrong kind of cooter in one of its biggest events.

It's a cooter crisis.

The city has 'fessed up--they've been using non-native cooters for the Cooter Cup race.

Patti Smith, the city's director of parks and recreation, is apologetic.

"Cooters," she said. "They all look the same. So I had no idea that there was a difference."

Cooter Cup Rules

Pick your cooter
Set it in the circle
Wait
Yelling at your cooter is acceptable
Touching your cooter is not

Oh, but there is. Red eared cooters, also called red-ear sliders, are native to much of the southeast. But not to Florida.

Florida cooters are yellow-bellied turtles, and to protect the native species, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has made it illegal to buy red-ear sliders in the state.

"Unbeknownst to us," Smith said. "We would never do anything illegal."

So now that the city knows, you'll only see the yellow-bellied variety at this year's race.

So that leads to the logical question: How can you find a fast cooter?

Only the yellow-bellied cooter can be raced in the Cooter Cup.

"I picked the meanest cooter actually out of the entire pool," said Shivella Rogers, who won the first Cooter Cup. "So the first cooter that looked like it was going to bite me was the cooter I picked."

Rogers won't be a contestant this year, so the field is wide open.

The Cooter Festival runs all weekend in Inverness. The cooter races begin Saturday at noon, with a race every hour until 5 p.m.

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