1/2/2024 0 Comments Red eared slider predators![]() ![]() In December 2018, customs officials at Chennai international airport had detected two cases of attempted smuggling of these exotic turtles. The Red-eared Slider is also part of the international wildlife trade where it is illegally transported to India, mainly through Chennai and Trichy airports. The NCBI also has a national-level facility to collect invasive species from any part of the country. It is also advising the union government to initiate large-scale advertisement campaigns discouraging pet shops from selling the species and instructing pet owners not to release them to the wild. On its part, the NCBI has started survey and restoration efforts to remove the Red-eared Slider turtle from India’s wild and water bodies with the help of different state governments and various environmental NGOs. With the active involvement of the forest department, we are collecting such turtles and accommodating them in NCBI to study more on them with collaborative involvement of experts worldwide,” Sajeev told Mongabay-India. “For over a decade, our institution (KFRI) has been engaged in research on alien invasive species, and the latest is this turtle. They said they bought the turtles from Bengaluru to resell to an individual who wanted to keep them as pets. Last April, police and forest officials seized a pair of such turtles from the bags of four people in Kerala – they were initially taken into custody from the hill station, Munnar, for cheating a taxi driver and the turtles were discovered in their bags. Sajeev, a senior principal scientist with KFRI, who has been nominated in recent days by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) as the national level focal point for the Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (APFISN), the Red-eared Slider, an invasive turtle species in India, is spreading rapidly across water bodies in India, especially in the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. ![]() Once the turtle becomes an adult though, it can be a challenge to take care of and keep safe and owners prefer to release it into water bodies.Īdd More Images The invasive species is often abandoned in water bodies by pet owners. The Red-eared Slider turtle ( Trachemys scripta elegans) is an attractive animal because of its tiny size and appealing colour, which makes it a popular pet in India. Das cautioned Thambi against releasing the turtle back into the waterbody.Īround 19 Red-eared Sliders, seized from different parts of Kerala, are being studied at KFRI’s Nodal Centre for Biological Invasions (NCBI). He identified it as a Red-eared Slider turtle, an exotic and invasive species that is a significant threat to the biodiversity of water bodies in India. Sandeep Das, a researcher with the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) at Peechi near Thrissur, noticed the picture on social media. As soon as he reached home, Thambi clicked a picture of the cute-looking red-eared turtle and posted it on his social media account. Thambi, a sixth standard student from Kalathode in central Kerala’s Thrissur town, chanced upon a turtle while fishing in a local canal. illegally exported millions of Red-eared Sliders to different countries around the world, including India.Īround three months ago, Adithyan D. Between 19 farmers and pet traders in the U.S. The turtles originated in the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.The exotic, invasive turtle is a threat to the 29 native species of freshwater turtles and tortoises in India.Unaware pet owners and weak laws are facilitating the spread of the Red-eared Slider, an invasive turtle species found in water bodies across India. ![]()
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