[obol] turtles and birds

[Alan Contreras]

If the sliders are not native, their presence is damaging to natives and it is not legal to dump them in our waterways, I would think that wildlife management agencies could simply ask someone reasonably competent with a .22 to kill them.  We do that with invasive fish via poisoning, after all, and in Eugene an enormous effort has been made to remove non-native blackberries and other plants from certain areas.

This would serve in a small way to improve bird habitat by maintaining native ecological systems.


-----Original Message-----
>From: Elaine Stewart <stewarte at metro.dst.or.us>
>Sent: Oct 9, 2006 8:12 AM
>To: obol at lists.oregonstate.edu
>Subject: [obol] Re: off-topic turtles, one more point
>
>Although it's true that it's no longer legal to sell sliders as pets, it
>still happens.  And people can buy anything online nowadays.  About a
>year and a half ago, someone dumped about a dozen red-eared sliders at
>Smith-Bybee in North Portland, in the slough where the old parking lot
>used to be.  I caught one of them nesting this year, but the rest are
>still out there; I see them when I'm doing surveys each spring.  
>
>It's true that many people think they're being humane when they dump
>pets in natural areas.  Unfortunately, these non-native turtles can not
>only compete with natives, they also can bring disease.  An owner tired
>of the 20-year commitment to a pet turtle may not know their animal is a
>carrier of upper respiratory infections and various other diseases.  But
>those illnesses can spread like wildfire through native populations and
>decimate them.  It gets pretty scary when there are only a couple of
>robust populations of a native species like the painted turtle left in
>Oregon.
>
>-Elaine
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Alan Contreras - Eugene, Oregon