More illegals???

[Daniel cain 45,154]

Interesting article...

European pond turtle could return to British rivers and lakes | Rewilding | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

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Conservationists say reintroduction of reptile could contribute to restoring ancient biodiverse wetlands

 

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

Plenty dead fish in our rivers for them the way the water companies are going.

[mackem 26,270]

That article says there are no aquatic animals that feed on dead fish in the UK……..Crayfish?

[BEARINATOR 2,867]

41 minutes ago, mackem said:

That article says there are no aquatic animals that feed on dead fish in the UK……..Crayfish?

Eels and all predators mop them up haha

[mackem 26,270]

2 minutes ago, BEARINATOR said:

Eels and all predators mop them up haha

Yup,I have seen a dead tench with a load of dead crayfish tucking in,the article is slightly misleading.

[Daniel cain 45,154]

Loads of turtles and terrapins already over here breeding in lots of carp pond's etc,my local lakes full of em

[BEARINATOR 2,867]

Nice as pets but stuff having them in fish ponds or the wild over here 

[TRUEBRIT66 1,520]

 

One the size of a dinner plate in the pond by us survived the winter with pond completely frozen for over a week, I always thought they needed to be kept in heated conditions?

Edited July 7, 2023 by TRUEBRIT66

[mackem 26,270]

37 minutes ago, TRUEBRIT66 said:

One the size of a dinner plate in the pond by us survived the winter with pond completely frozen for over a week, I always thought they needed to be kept in heated conditions?

No mate,I have seen ponds in Canada,frozen solid for months,as soon as the spring thaw defrosts the ice the turtles appear to bask.

[jigsaw 11,863]

I was told the discarded pet turtles can't survive here on the ponds as they need calcium supplements for the shell to grow and expand,...it seems this may not be correct if they are breeding in Britain 

Edited July 7, 2023 by jigsaw

[mackem 26,270]

1 minute ago, jigsaw said:

I was told the discarded pet turtles can't survive here on the ponds as they need calcium supplements for the shell to grow and expand,...it seems this may not be correct if they are breeding in Britain 

They survive and certainly put on size in the UK but I don’t know about breeding?

[jigsaw 11,863]

Just now, mackem said:

They survive and certainly put on size in the UK but I don’t know about breeding?

Was just going on that comment

[mackem 26,270]

4 minutes ago, jigsaw said:

Was just going on that comment

I did a bit of reading when I first saw turtles basking on ponds that had been frozen solid,I knew Canada and time USA states are far colder than UK but turtles stateside have better summers,however there’s a few people I have met who are convinced they breed in the UK.

[paulus 26]

4 hours ago, mackem said:

That article says there are no aquatic animals that feed on dead fish in the UK……..Crayfish?

Pike, Perch and Zander will take dead fish. Most fish are cannibalistic to some extent. Hench fishmeal is added to ground bait.  As for Turtles/Terrapins not breeding here, A local pit i use to fish had 2 resident Turtles/terrapins as big as dinner plates, now there are five. The other 3 are the size of the bottom of a pint pot. No idea if they were bred in there or if someone just chucked another 3 in mind. 

[BGD 6,436]

There has definitely been the odd confirmed report of successful Red Eared Slider clutches in some spots in England and this was a good decade ago so I'd imagine it's only happening more often with the long warm summers we've been having. They will bury their eggs in decomposing vegetation which keeps the temps up so you don't actually need solid 25+ degree weather to have a successful clutch.

You will only get males hatching unless incubation temps are up around 31 degrees though so I can't imagine the population is very sustainable long term

Edited July 7, 2023 by BGD