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Post by rowanberry on Apr 20, 2019 14:35:14 GMT
We visited Wanstead Park in East London yesterday, and noticed a group of people standing and staring along the banks of one of the park's waterways.
It turned out that they were all watching a large turtle, (or terrapin) sunning on a log. Personally, I call them turtles, and after a google discovered that 'terrapin' is an old Algonquian Native American word meaning “a little turtle". This was rather a large "little turtle"!
I always think it's amusing how they will extend their legs to take full advantage of the heat.
One gentleman showed me photos on his phone taken last autumn near the same spot of two of them, so this is one of a pair that's been released into the wild. The turtle didn't seem to mind being the focus of a photo-shoot, but when several coots started squabbling alongside its log it dived into the water in search of a more peaceful place to bask.
The duck has been included as a size reference.
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Post by aeshna5 on Apr 20, 2019 15:10:20 GMT
Good photo. It's a Yellow-bellied Slider, originally from south-east US. The same species, but different race to Red-eared which is probably the most frequently encountered in urban wetlands.
The names turtles/terrapins get confusing. In the states they seem to call them all turtles, whereas I consider turtles marine reptiles + think of these as terrapins, which seems to be the overall British interpretation.
Didn't see any herps today but heard a chorus of Marsh Frogs at the London Wetland Centre late morning.
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Post by Tringa on Apr 21, 2019 8:17:34 GMT
Good shots, especially the first.
Unfortunately terrapins have been residents in Wanstead Park (there are quite a few in the Ornamental Water and Perch Pond) for a few years. The come, I've read, from wanting to keep a terrapin after the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons in the late 1980s/early 1990s. After a while people found keeping them in a tank was not all that much fun and dumped them in canals and ponds. Until relatively recently the main danger from a terrain as a invasive species seemed to be its longevity - perhaps up to 30 years or so - as it was said in the wild in UK it was too cold for them to breed. However, a juvenile red eared terrapin was seen in the Regent's Canal a few years ago. The suggestion was that increasing water temperature might have allowed breeding. We are just going to have to wait and see if the numbers increase and if there is any impact on native wildlife. Good to see the Ornamental water with some water in it. Last July it was in a poor state -  Dave |
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