May 08, 2004
Invasive Turtle
My wife and I finally managed to sneak up and get a good enough angle on the turtle in the overflow pond near the Byrne Creek spawning habitat to identify it as a red-eared slider.
We have a red-eared pet that we got in Japan some seven or eight years ago, and we soon learned they are not native either to Japan, or Canada.
When we moved to Canada in 1999, we had to get an import permit from the Feds, and a possession permit from the BC provincial government. We are not allowed to breed Midori, our pampered princess, nor are we allowed to set her free in the wild.
The above photo shows Midori on my lap a few days ago.
It's sad to see pets discarded, or escaped into the wild. Especially ones that are not native to our area. Nurturing reptiles is a major responsibility, one that we, and obviously many other people, were not aware of when they succumbed to the cute scrambling of baby turtles in some pet shop.
We love Midori, we spend a lot of time on her, and now know that she could live to 30 or even 40 years.
That's a BIG responsibility.
We encourage other potential turtle buyers to think about this. Your initial $10 or $20 investment could result in many years of care....
Whatever you do, please don't dump your reptile (or any other beast) into your local creek or pond. There's a good chance it's not native and could either die, or multiply with drastic consequences to local species.
If you can't handle it, call your local SPCA, Wildlife Rescue, Streamkeeper,
Birding, whatever nature group.
Someone will know of a better option. :-)
Posted by Paul at May 8, 2004 08:19 PM