Subject: Do birds kill turtles?
Date: Feb 16 07:44:46 1999
From: Kelly Mcallister - mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov




On Tue, 16 Feb 1999 tuisto at oz.net wrote:

> On Wednesday I stopped in Seward Park, and there on the shore by the
> tennis courts I saw gulls and crows pecking away at what appeared to be a
> turtle. Disturbing their fun, I approached and found the shell of a
> red-eared slider, about 10 inches or so long and picked remarkably clean:...

I recently received a call from King County Health Department relaying
reports of turtles dead on the shores of Lake Washington. It sounded as
though there were quite a few. Red-eared Sliders are abundant in Lake
Washington, apparently due to regular releases of turtles bought in
pet stores (Lake Washington once had a good population of Western Pond
Turtles but they are now either gone or, perhaps, down to a very few).
Red-eared Slders may not be successfully reproducing in Lake Washington.
Volunteers trapped about 60 of them in 10 days several years ago and all
were adult or near-adult turtles. None were juveniles (None was a juvenile?).

Anyway, my confusion about the English language aside, the Red-eared Slider
is native to the southeastern United States and is a warm-water adapted
turtle. They can live a long time in our waters but I would not be surprised
if many succumb to prolonged cold conditions. Washington's native turtles
are quiescent during winter, becoming active again with warmer days in spring,
usually around April (in my experience). So, it is definitely not a time of
year when turtles would be expected to be active. I would expect them to be
dug in under objects (or vegetation) under water or burrowed in under dense
brush (like Himlayan Blackberry) on land.

The turtle deaths on Lake Washington are interesting but, given that we're
talking about an introduced species, I doubt there will be any resources
directed toward finding out the reasons (unless someone makes a potential
connection to human health concerns).

Kelly McAllister