NEWS 110
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The Red-Eared Turtle is probably the best-known of the swamp turtles,
though this turtle (sub)species has no longer been imported into the EU
for many years. Much less well-known, but frequently available, is the
closely-related Cumberland Turtle,
Trachemys scripta troosti.
The Cumberland
Turtle
by Frank Schäfer
he reason for the fame of the Red-
Eared Turtle (
Trachemys scripta
elegans
) is that this gorgeous turtle is bred
in vast numbers on commercial farms.The
Turtles
T
All swamp turtle babies are gorgeous and cute. But it should always be borne in mind that they attain a
length of 20-30 cm.They then need a really large amount of space and indoor maintenance requires a lot of
work.The photo above shows baby Red-Ear Turtles,and below is a baby Cumberland Turtle.
All photos: Frank Schäfer
extremely cute little babies were sold as
pets for very little money from the 1970s
to the end of the 1990s. Many buyers
simply suppressed the thought that the
cute little babies would one day grow into
large adults requiring a lot of space, and as
a result innumerable Red-Ears were
released into the wild. To the present day
such individuals can still be found in
Germany.
Release is a bad thing!
The release of unwanted pets has been
strictly prohibited for decades - and with
good reason!. It is completely immaterial
whether it is dogs, cats, or turtles that are
released. It is wrong, because the released
animal will either die a slow and painful
death as it cannot find anywhere suitable
to live, or it will survive and compete with
the indigenous wildlife. And abandoned,
feral dog will, obviously, hunt deer and
hares and become a carrier of dangerous
diseases.The situation is very similar when
ornamental turtles are released and
survive (though the majority don't). It is
true that there are no turtles in Germany
for them to compete with (for various
reasons the European swamp turtle has
been practically extinct in Germany for
150 years), but just as dogs hunt game, a
swamp turtle will hunt newts, frogs, and
other animals and plants that already
have more than enough to contend with
in our orderly cultivated landscape. This
really must be avoided!
