When biologist Aimee Mitchell began her tally of endangered coastal western painted turtles 15 years ago, she says it was impossible to ignore the number of discarded pet turtles thriving in the wild.
The invasive red-eared sliders, which grow larger than the coastal western painted turtles — B.C.’s only native turtle — were crowding sunbathing spots.
Her team’s most recent study was the first to confirm that the freed red-eared sliders are successfully reproducing in the same territory as the West Coast population of western painted turtles.
This population of turtles — that spans south along the Sunshine Coast, Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island — hit a low of about 3,000 before hatchlings were released over the past few years, Mitchell says.
Mitchell and her colleagues
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