# Pest turtle found in Sydney street



## Fuscus (Feb 28, 2012)

Pest turtle found in Sydney street | thetelegraph.com.au


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## r3ptilian (Feb 28, 2012)

Thats one down, now what are they gonna do about the rest in the wild in NSW, VIC & QLD.


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## Raymonde (Feb 28, 2012)

well in queensland NOTHING.... they cut the funding budget for the slider project and the program leader/coordinator got sick of being stuffed around and quit....

for something to happen there needs to be public pressure on the right government departments to get funding back. 

They have actually developed a really cool technique for detecting the presence of slider turtles in a waterbody. All they need is a sample of water and because the slider is so different to native turtles they can actually pick up genes or scent or something like that. Not sure on the specifics of how it works but it has been thoroughly tested and it does work.... It can also work on detect other species that at unique from the species that cohabit an area (eg good for people studying rare species). Of cause the test only tells you presence or absence, not the size of the population, but it would save a lot of time doing useless trapping if your not sure if there were sliders in a lake...


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## justbrad (Feb 28, 2012)

Slider soup.... Yummy!


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## dragonlover1 (Feb 28, 2012)

Fuscus said:


> Pest turtle found in Sydney street | thetelegraph.com.au



just what we need!!!!!!!!!!!! another imported pest!!!!!!


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## Wrightpython (Feb 28, 2012)

So now what, are they just going to kill it, what a waste.


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## Bluetongue1 (Feb 29, 2012)

r3ptilian said:


> Thats one down, now what are they gonna do about the rest in the wild in NSW, VIC & QLD.


 They are also in WA. About 18 years ago I found a good sized adult in the vicinity of a local swamp. It was put down. There has been numerous specimens collected here.

They sell them as tiny hatchlings in the states. They are so small and colourful and active that people succumb to temptation and bring them in. Sooner or later they get too big for the aquarium and have to go. Surprise, surprise, people are not keen to hand them in to the appropriate authorities. So not wishing to kill what was a pet, they tend to let them go in local water bodies.

Blue


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## -Peter (Feb 29, 2012)

I have picked up quite a lot over the years. Some were smuggled from Asia in peoples pockets, some were pinched from Taronga when they had them in all the ponds there, some were bought from guys showing up at various markets, some were found in natural settings and some had just escaped from their owners. They are voracious feeders, breed readily are extremely hardy and knock the socks of some of our indigenous specis in those respects. They warrant the appelation of invasive.


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