terrapin in local pond

Will look forward to seeing your pictures Dave......yes, it sound´s very much like our whole scenario regarding the new inmates on the lake (LOL)!.

Thank-you for your post i spoke to a local angler that fishes the lake regularly he said there are quit a few terrapins in the lake and he said like you as it is a very large body of water they don,t seem to be causing a proplem.I live in leytonstone london and the lake or should i say pond is called hollow pond.Don,t get me wrong it was nice to see in the wild and now i know it should be ok i will not report it i will try and get a photo of it as i don,t know anything about terrapins so some one might be able to tell me what breed it is.

Hi Dave,

You´d actually be amazed at just how many terrapins actually live in many of our lakes and ponds around the UK (LOL)!.

Most originally found their way into such waterways following their illegal release from pet owner´s who bought such creatures on a whim or following a phase (such as the Mutant Ninja Teenage Turtle films) when they were very small and then when they started growing too big for their tanks (as they do grow very big) and started to become more of a handful to look after (they require regualr tank cleaning and water changes as they are very messy eaters and poo-ers and can make their tanks quite smelly and yucky)...owner´s took it upon themselves to release them into local lakes, etc.

Where I used to live, we had a lake at the bottom of where I worked ´Tilgate Nature Centre´ - the lake is FULL and I mean FULL of released Red Eared Terrapins, whom have grown so use to the wild outdoors, our climate and feeding off the plentiful ducklings, goslings and freshwater fish, that they actually have bred and mulitplied and they even hibernate over the winter months.

Often on a warm summers day, one could walk around the lake and see them all basking on floating logs in the middle of it...they grew quite used to people from a distance but if we ever had to enter the water to deal with a sick or injured bird, no sooner did they us pop our boat in, then they´d all leap off in a splash and dive to the murky depths - catching them is virtually impossible unless one lays plenty of underwater traps laced with tasty bait.

Yes, they are extremely hardy and will use the silty bottom for hibernation and they only pose a risk to wildlife if the wildlife on the water is sparse...they are quite partial to a young duckling as they swim by over the terrapins and even a very young gosling - they used to take some of ours but are not really different to a Pike nicking the odd bird or so, for a feed, ideally fish and other grubs, etc will do just fine.

We learnt to live with our terrapins (not ours by rights but as they lived in our lake we had no choice LOL)....they are so hard to recapture that it´s rarely worth reporting them unless they became a real big problem and started depleting the pond/lake of it´s natural habitants...believe me, they are undoubtedly happier living in the wilds of the UK, then living in a horrid cramped and rather smelly tank unless of course, they happen to fall into the hands of a real, knowledgable and doting owner (LOL)!.

I hope that helps answer your question Dave - enjoy your terrapin watching !!.