A few days ago, two environmental guards from Pamplona They went hunting at Lake Mendillorri and captured two specimens of Florida pond turtlea species that, as its name indicates, is not native to the area. According to Dani González, one of the guards in charge of the mission, right now in that lake in Pamplona “there could be about 100.” The figure is impressive, but it is far from what they saw a decade ago, when they emptied the lake and there was surprise: they found about 300 turtles, several carp and even a voracious catfish.
What is happening. When Lake Mendillorri was completely emptied in October 2016 for the first time in two decades, technicians used electrofishing (stunning the lake’s inhabitants to capture them while minimizing the damage) and found that calico. With the proliferation of the species and its inclusion in the Spanish Catalog of Invasive Exotic Species at the state level (Royal Decree 630/2013), since 2021 in Navarra the Galapagos’ annual environmental control campaign, which begins in June: they take advantage of this turtle’s love of the sun to set traps for them every week.
As explains Gonzálezit is “a square trap where they have two ramps on which they climb to sun themselves, and once they have warmed up and go down, they fall into the trap that contains a net in which they remain floating and swimming.” Afterwards, they go by canoe and collect them to take them to Wildlife Recovery Centers. In 2016 they did it all at once and now they do it little by little, but the trickle of freshwater turtles is incessant.
Why is it important. Introducing an invasive species into an ecosystem is usually not a good idea, but here hunger meets the desire to eat. The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) is already a threatened species and the American is a direct competitor for available resources like the sun, necessary to regulate your body temperature.
Furthermore, its reproductive capacity is noticeably higher. Thus, it lays larger eggs and while American males reach maturity at five years old, it takes Europeans until they are 16 years old. This study evidence that when both species coexist, the European pond turtle loses weight and suffers greater mortality, so much so that the authors recommend stopping any introduction of Florida turtles into European wetlands.
Context. The Florida pond turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans) arrived in Spain as a pet and ended up, like so many other times, released into rivers and lakes when it grew too large. It is no longer that it is present in the Spanish Catalog of Invasive Exotic Species, it is that according to the IUCN list It is one of the hundred most harmful invasive species in the world.
Mendillorri is not an isolated case: its normalization as a pet and its subsequent release has caused it to be present in most wetlands on the continent today. Only in Navarra, this control campaign has been expanded this year to other municipalities such as Tudela, Corella, Funes and Cintruénigo.
Pets are not a toy. From the Ilundáin Wildlife Recovery Center they go to places like the Basabere School Farm or Sendaviva Park, which is increasingly populated with turtles for obvious reasons. Although its sale and trade are prohibited by law, if you have a turtle and you no longer want it, there is a free service to manage it properly, free of charge and without penalties, before releasing it in the park that is closest to home.
As explains Ana Brittany de la Torregeneral director of the Environment of the Government of Navarra, “natural species are not a toy, the environment cannot allow these intrusions.” The director explains that “once a species is established in a territory, eradicating it is especially complex, especially in natural channels” because this scenario applies to the Florida pond turtle, but also applies to the American mink: it is a direct threat to the European mink and Navarra is, behind Croatia, the place that houses the largest colony in Europe.
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Cover | Pamplona City Council and Diego Delso
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