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Here is a pic I took of the panhandling Snapping Turtle I mentioned earlier.
Very cool. Like a little dinosaur.
Quote:
Originally Posted by catfishonthelake
It's funny you wrote that. I've actually wondered if we have a "turtle problem" in this state, or at least in Union County. So many of the little ponds I fish are just simply infested with them. The majority of them are the red-ear and yellow-belly sliders, which although abundant in NJ, are not native. They're the "China Town" turtles that I'm sure people keep for a few months and let go. If you go to Meisel Ave. park in late June or July the place is literally filled with them. They have no natural predators, and if they keep reproducing and people keep letting them go, then there is really nothing to control the population.
http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/s...red_slider.pdf |
I am not familiar with Meisel Ave Park, but I lived in Union County and can only recall seeing a few invasive Red Eared Sliders. The vast majority of basking turtles were Painted Turtles and Red-Bellied Turtles. They appear similar to the invasive species, but they are both native species.
There is certainly not a turtle over-population problem anywhere in the U.S. The reality is there have never been FEWER turtles around. Between the over-population of raccoons destroying the majority of the eggs laid and the number of turtles killed crossing the roads, populations can only go down.
In fact, New Jersey has an endangered species (the Bog Turtle) and a threatened species (the Wood Turtle).
To make things worse for the turtles, the Chinese have a voracious appetite for turtles that commercial trappers are only too happy to oblige.
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