European pond tortoise Emys orbicularis

 

Just an update really I have seen European Pond terrapins in Essex - unfortuantely they were for sale in a local exotic pet store - along with french marsh frogs!

JC

Personally, from all i've seen, heard, & read about over the years, i myself have very little doubt that European Pond Terrapins (& possibly American Red Eared Sliders) have done & do breed here in suitably mild areas of England with limited success in our warmest years. As Chas said in mentioning about Polish terrapins, these reptiles have longevity on their side with which to take full advantage of & annualy attempt to try & breed successfully. And young, alert little terrapins are hardly going to be easy little critters to spot in suitably lush habitat, such as fenlands.  Even in ideally warm enough years here for breeding , maybe only a quarter to half of a clutch of eggs make it to hatchling success, & then there's predators like Pike & Herons which no doubt keep surviving hatchling numbers down.        

Edited by Mick

Obviously this is a very old thread, but is anyone still looking into the status of this species in Norfolk? I have an adult female that was picked up in the broads, behaviour is very wild so doesn't seem to be a recent escape/dump. I would be interested to hear from anyone that would like to take a look at her, identify subspecies etc. Also looking for a home, so if anyone is working on breeding possible natives then let me know!

Reviving an old thread again but I thought it worth mentioning that I have just been brought yet another "stray" Emys found in Norfolk, this time an adult male. This one was found in Hickling, so again very close to the broads and I suspect far more likely a wild individual rather than and escaped/dumped pet. Anyone still looking into this topic?

Fantastic, and anecdotal or not it is proof that wild breeding is possible, however rare it might be. Certainly this species seems to show up more frequently than they should if they were all simply dumped captives given how relatively uncommon and valuable they are in captivity compared to other species. During the time I have been working in rescue, bearing in mind we run mainly as a wildlife centre rather than specifically for exotics, I have taken in only around 5 or 6 "stray" freshwater turtles that have been caught in the wild. These have been mostly commonly kept exotics such as Sliders and Maps as would be expected, but 2 now have been Emys, which seems pretty out of proportion to me. I am aware that there was some introduction attempts in this area many years ago so maybe it is simply down to this being more successful that generally acknowledged, but it seems a shame that no one seems to be interested in DNA testing these wild caught individuals to figure out what their origin really is.