Evening Standard
25 May 2011
Hybrid turtles are taking hold of London's parks and ponds.
Experts studying 1,600 square kilometres of London and the home counties were shocked to find 10 species and several hybrids. They even found rare African turtles in a Camden park.
Despite culls, numbers are growing. Tom Langton of the London Natural History Society said: "We found a big increase in the sightings of terrapins, a type of turtle popular in the Eighties due to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoon series."
A government ban in 1997 has led to "lookalike" species being sold cheaply in pet shops. Mr Langton said he hoped all terrapins would be banned in the UK.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23953408-mutant-turtles-terrorising-london-ponds.do
Saturday, 28 May 2011
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What does the word "terrorising" actually mean as applied to turtles? I mean, what could turtles possibly do that would be terrible enough to merit "terror" or culling?
ReplyDeleteI would think that if a population of some rare African turtle were to make its home in MY pond, I would want to leave it there, as a sort of insurance policy against the species' possible extinction back in Africa. And hybrid turtles? I'd call that genetic diversity, not a problem.