Ana Tuñas Matilla |
Madrid (EFE).- In the 1980s and 1990s, “all the kids wanted to have a little green turtle, with its pool and palm tree”, it was the “star mascot” of the city due to its small size, explained to EFE the director of Conservation Programs of the General Directorate of Sustainability of the Junta de Extremadura, María Jesús Palacios, who recalled that these turtles grow and when adults can weigh between 3 or 4 kilos and measure from 20 to 60 centimeters, depending on the subspecies.
That is when they start to bother at home and many people, thinking about what to do with the animal, decide to release it into the wild, believing that it does it good but without being aware that it is not its habitat, since it comes from North America, and that this is how an IAS (Invasive Alien Species) invasion begins.
According to expert estimates, the purchase of tortoises from Florida or American tortoises and their subsequent massive release peaked in the 1990s.
After detecting the invasion and after years of testing, the Junta de Extremadura launched in 2021 a protocol for the control and/or eradication of this reptile, present mainly in urban sections of rivers.
It is in them where the massive release took place, since it is in the cities where they were bought the most; In the countryside they were not successful because, as there is generally more space available, citizens opt for other types of pets, such as dogs or cats.
More than 5,000 specimens withdrawn from the Guadiana
Since the implementation of the protocol, more than 5,200 specimens and half a thousand clutches have been removed in a stretch of just 4 kilometers from the Guadiana, mainly as it passes through the city of Badajoz.
“We still have a lot of work to do, especially considering that we have to protect our native species, such as the leper tortoise… The Florida tortoise is bigger, more powerful and more aggressive” and does not allow them to access sunbathing areas, such as rocks or logs.
If a reptile does not bask in the sun, “it ends up dying from hypothermia,” Palacios stressed, adding that the presence of Florida tortoises has “dramatically” reduced the number of leprous tortoises, to the point that the ratio between the two is 8 to 1, in favor of the American one.
The average life expectancy of these turtles in the wild is 20 years, up to 40 in captivity, and each female can lay about 20 eggs per clutch.
Among their favorite foods are fish -many of them, also IAS that are abundant in urban environments- and carrion, although they also prey on the young of other animals, such as ducklings or birds that fall from the nest.
In addition to posing a risk to native species, these turtles are a very important vector for the spread of salmonella, a pathogen that jumps from animals to humans and can cause serious gastrointestinal problems.
According to the expert, although it is impossible to know how many specimens of the Florida tortoise there are currently in Extremadura or in all of Spain, they have been able to determine in which places they are most abundant: the river sections in large cities where the trade in these pets was more widespread.
The release continues and new species arrive
“People keep releasing them, the fishermen tell us,” warned Palacios, who has asked those citizens who can no longer keep their non-native pets to contact the authorities to collect them and never release them into the wild.
The Florida tortoise is part of the list of one hundred most harmful IAS in the world prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and its sale in Spain has been prohibited since 2013, after its inclusion in the national catalog of invasives.
However, history could repeat itself, since control work has found specimens of other exotic species in the Guadiana that have replaced the Florida one in stores: false map turtle, red-bellied turtle, Chinese turtle and striped-necked turtle.