SUZIE SIMPSON: It became very popular to buy these animals.
They would go to the pet store, they would buy one of these very
small hatchling turtles and somewhat easy to keep as far as
people thought.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Next time you're passing a lake, river or
canal, keep your eye on the water and you may just glimpse a
mysterious shelled animal that looks out of place.
Invasive Terrapins are now part of freshwater systems in the UK,
continental Europe and beyond.
And these animals have a fascinating origin story. We're
going back to the 80s and 90s to discover how a popular cartoon
triggered a big abandoned animal problem.
I'm Ranger Rosie Holdsworth. Welcome to Wild Tales, the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pet Craze.
A comic convention in New Hampshire, US, 1984. Two young,
struggling comic book artists, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird,
are hoping to get some attention with their new creation.
They've scrambled funds to self-print their comic book. The
concept is a bit out there. The main characters are four
half-man, half-turtle fighters, and they're named after
Renaissance artists.
There's Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael and party dude
Michelangelo.
In fact, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles becomes so phenomenally
popular, it's a touchpoint of 80s and 90s pop culture. And 40
years later, the franchise is still going.
Back in the 80s, kids are seeing the first toys, costumes and of
course, the cartoon series.
No one could have predicted the stratospheric global success of
the turtles. And it seems no one predicted something else.
How a cartoon would spark a pet craze and a conservation
cautionary tale.
SUZIE SIMPSON: I have the song playing in my head now.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: This is Suzie Simpson, leader of citizen
science project Turtle Tally UK, recalling the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles cartoon's particular appeal.
SUZIE SIMPSON: These turtles, they were kind of human-like
turtles that were ninjas. This was because some radioactive goo
had been poured on them and they happened to be in the sewers in
New York and got rescued by a rat and the rat became their
parent and taught them ninja skills and they basically went
out into the streets and became these kind of vigilante heroes.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Kids' fascination was street fighting
turtles... translates into a spike in demand for the animals
as pets.
SUZIE SIMPSON: The 80s and 90s, there were millions of baby
hatchlings that were being imported. And so, yes, it seems
to be linked in with that kind of popularity or that craze
around that time.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Wild Tales producer Michelle and her sister
were among the many kids who hit the pet shop.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS: We were walking around the tanks. And we
saw this tank full of these really cute, tiny turtles or
Terrapins.
The size of them was so small they could fit in the palm of
your hand. And the one that we had our eye on was called a
red-eared terrapin. And these really pretty red markings on
the sides of their heads.
And I think my parents thought it would be a bit like getting a
fish.
This was Pre-Google. Maybe you should have asked the shopkeeper
a few more questions.
But we collected this terrapin. We called her Elliot and we took
her home and put her in a tank in our bedroom.
Elliot always looked very pretty, but she was quite a
grumpy kind of terrapin.
It was quite hard to stroke her, but we still loved Elliot. She
was very cool and a big feature in our bedroom growing up in the
90s for sure.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Terrapins, red-eared sliders and
yellow-bellied sliders are especially popular pets because
of their colourful markings.
The term terrapin is what we in the UK use to mean freshwater
turtle species. Suzie takes us for a moment and went to the
wetlands and swamps of the US to meet these Terrapins in their
natural habitat.
SUZIE SIMPSON: These animals' native range is in the States,
so sort of southeasterly, the eastern parts of the States.
Their natural behaviours, they will normally come out in the
morning and they will bask when it gets nice and warm.
They rely on the external environment to heat up.
They're not like us. And that will occur mainly from spring
through to autumn time and then when it gets to winter time they
all tend to go down and brumate which means that they just slow
down their body they just stay under the water and kind of wait
out the colder period until they come back out in spring again.
And they're beautiful they're carapace you know their shell
their protective shell and what they can do and how they go
under you know during brumation during winter and they're able
to breathe underwater like that.
They're just incredible creatures.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Back in UK homes, pet owners are having
problems. Terrapins grow from 50 pence piece size to dinner plate
size and they can live for over 40 years, meaning lots of pet
owners are well out of their depth.
SUZIE SIMPSON: Then how do you keep an animal that size?
They need big space, a bout of space for swimming, so large
area with a pool to be able to swim.
They need to be able to come out and bask on a platform under UV
bulbs and basking lights.
So the complexity comes in later when they get a lot bigger and
that's when people realise that that wasn't a good idea, maybe.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS: So Elliot got so big that my dad ended up
converting her into a bigger tank and made this terrain for
her where she could crawl out and bask in the sun.
My sister and I shared a room so the terrapin could have a room
to itself. She even jumped out of the tank a couple of times
and ended up in the washing pile because she was just getting far
too big for her terrain.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: People start to look for ways to relieve
themselves of their large, long-lived pets.
Some people give their pets to rescue sanctuaries, while some
illegally release Terrapins into lakes, canals and rivers.
SUZIE SIMPSON: We've had people report that they've seen people
literally walk down to the lake, open up a carrier and just pour
them...
Literally pour the turtle into the water.
They're in canals and lakes and rivers and all sorts.
If anybody releases a pet into the wild, you risk passing on
diseases and that animal itself could die or become injured so
actually there's a lot of issues with that.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: These Terrapins are classed as
invasive species. Meaning animals that have been
introduced by people into an ecosystem and could be having a
negative impact like spreading disease and out-competing native
species.
Suzie Simpson's work at Turtle Tally UK is a citizen science
project asking people to send in their sightings to help build a
better understanding of these non-native species in our
waterways.
SUZIE SIMPSON: It's a survey that we run online for the
public to submit sightings of released pets, freshwater
turtles.
There are a few things that we just confirmed.
The red-eared sliders and the yellow-bellied sliders, we find
there are lots of these animals out there.
London's our biggest hotspot for finding these turtles. So it's
highly urbanised, lots of buildings, lots of people living
there.
So the chances are we've got a lot more pet owners.
At the moment, we don't believe that they're breeding either
because our weather, our conditions here in the UK just
are not appropriate for them to hatch out young. It's not hot
enough for long enough.
So I don't think we have thriving populations here. I
think what is happening is these animals are being released into
the waterways.
And as a result, each year, if they survive another year, then
they survive another year but if they don't, then we've actually
got a naturally dying off population.
We're more concerned about soft shells and common snapping
turtles. And these animals are a lot bigger than the red-eared
sliders but we don't get a lot of reports of those.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: So Susie's work suggests in the UK invasive
Terrapins impact is limited because they're unlikely to
breed in our cooler weather.
But in continental Europe invasive Terrapins are much more
of a problem.
SUZIE SIMPSON: They can out-compete native species for
example in Europe we actually have the European pond turtle
and this animal is at risk and is threatened and so actually
these introduced pets out-compete the native pond
turtles and it causes them to not use the basking spots so
they lose body condition.
There are lots of aspects that actually affect the native
species.
And then obviously if they breed, if the climate is right,
so in Europe and further afield, if it's warm enough for the eggs
to hatch out and they're able to have a thriving population, then
they'll be eating more different species, plants, animals.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Through the 90s, it's recognised that the
international trade in Terrapins is causing a widespread invasive
species problem.
In 1997, the UK and other European countries ban the
import of red-eared sliders as pets.
Since these are the most in-demand species, the ban helps
to bring an end to the turtle mania pet craze.
What can we learn from the tale of the teenage mutant ninja
turtle pet invasion?
SUZIE SIMPSON: I would definitely say turtles are not
an appropriate pet for a lot of people.
Please don't put animals out into the wild if they're not
supposed to be there, then they shouldn't be released out into
the wild.
Find rehoming services, sanctuaries, they will be able
to help you and provide guidance.
I think there's something with the responsibility to some of
these production crews and TV and films.
Kids sort of see these animals and they get really excited
about them. There's something there in being responsible about
that.
We work with pet shop owners so they're also trying their best
to educate people when they come in.
Some of them won't sell them at all and some will only sell them
at certain times of the year, won't sell them around when the
film or TV releases are.
We're on a good trajectory for getting that awareness out
there.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS: My parents ended up taking her to a
terrapin sanctuary and a lot of pet owners like us just hadn't
realised quite how much it would be to take this turtle on.
So I do feel bad about that. But I like to think that Elliot's
still out there with all her little terrapin friends swimming
around in their sanctuary.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: As for turtles and Terrapins, these beautiful
animals with their patterned shells and slow, smooth
movements capture our imaginations, even when they're
depicted wearing ninja masks and eating pizza.
But we need to remind ourselves to put the animal first.
You might even say, Turtle power!
Thanks for listening to this episode of Wild Tales. Look out
for Terrapins in waterways.
In my patch in Yorkshire, us rangers have been enjoying
spotting our long-time resident Terry The Terrapin this spring.
And if you do spot your own terrapin, head to the Turtle
Tally UK Citizen Science Project and let Susie know all about it.
For more Wild Tales action, head to @wildtalesnt on Instagram and
share your own stories with us with hashtag
#wildtaleswednesday. See you next time.