No competition with endogenous terrapins here (Belgium), but surely a waterfowl chick snatcher... 

Trachemys scripta is widespread now in eastern and southern Austria, but at the time there seems to be no competition with the native Emys here.
On Krk island its different. Trachemys scripta is released in high numbers in ponds and ditches by tourists (native and foreigners). And there is a strong competition on basking areas between the two species, mostly lost by the native Emys orbicularis hellenica.
At this pond, far away from others, the first 2 Trachemys have been observed in 2008. In 2009 now there are at least 5 inside. And this trunk is the only basking possibility there!

photo(http://www.vipersgarden.at/Berichte/krk_08/may/emys.JPG)

I have also published a short paper on introduced species on Krk island (Croatia) - in German language:
http://vipersgarden.at/PDF/OEGH_aktuell_Schweiger_Krk.pdf

Mario 

here in bilbao , northern spain , there are many lakes where you can see this species, but they are being erradicated because emy orbicularis and mauremys caspica are disappearing
they are a real problem 

We have our share in the uk, but as there are no native terrapins here there's no direct competition with locals. Also, because of our not so warm weather they are not able to breed. They can be a localised problem where they are released in large numbers, but these are usually urban site with less herpetological interest. 

In Bulgaria Trachemys is a big threat to our Emys orbicularis populations. 

Hi gang,

I see there is no reply from Romania, where Tibor Sos is our local expert on Trachemys, so i`ll share my experiences.

In Bucharest, i found out that almost every waterbody has some introduced terrapins, but fortunately they do not breed.
There is some competition for basking spots, and in some cases i recorded a drop in Emys numbers, but it`s hard to say that they have been affected by competition / disease or just killed/collected by mean children.

Cheers!



 

Regarding not breeding, I think we should remember that these animals are quite long-lived. I can imagine that succesful breeding every 10-20 years, in a year with mild weather etc., might suffice to maintain a (small) population, no? 

Jeroen,I think you might be right! Besides,I don't know about else where, but in Bulgaria it is still NOT proved that Trachemys doesn't breed! 

Hello everybody
There is a place near Thessaloniki where I've seen offspring of scripta... 

Here in Zagreb (Croatia), we have Maksimir park with five small lakes (actually more ponds then lakes). For the last month I've been working on a project concerning Trachemys in Maksimir, trying to evaluate their impact on Emys population, to establish if they breed here and so on. Trachemys spread over these ponds from 2 sources - one is ZOO that is located within Maksimir park (eventhough they won't confirm this), and second source are ignorant people who get rid off their pets by simply dumping them in these lakes. Over the years situation has been worse and worse, and I estimated that number of adult Trachemys is going from 100 to 150 individuals :(

So far I caught 3 juveniles with body weight from 9 to 13 grams, and 18 juveniles from 20 to 40 grams. Too bad that I couldn't find the nests or egg shells, so I can't say for certain that they breed ... But I believe they do. And that they successfully overwinter :(

Trachemys I observed are really adaptable, basking on rocks, logs, vegetation masses, banks, I even caught one juvenile basking on a dead duck!! While juvenile Emys were basking mostly on vegetation masses.

Besides Trachemys scripta elegans, I also noticed few individuals of T.s.scripta and 3 individuals of chinese soft shelled turtle - Pelodiscus sinensis (I caught one of these 3 and found it a new owner).

So, it is really important to educate the public, this situation is really terrible! 

today I saw about 10 juveniles of T.scripta at the same spot I mentioned before... Something must be done for this. 

While returning from work one evning I spotted this two little guys on a lake close to my home. First juveniles i`ve ever seen in the wild in Romania:

Not cool! 

There are rumoured to be a colony of these living in the old grounds that Glasgow Zoo was housed, outside of this I have not heardany reports of truly wild specimens in Scotland, although several of my fellow herpetoculturists have made their gardens secure and released them into their ponds. 

In Denmark North American terrapins (e.g. T. scripta) are occur very sparsely in ponds, but mostly in recreational urban parks with very limited biological value. They have no negative effect on our indigenous fauna and flora. They are unable to reproduce and will often die during hibernation.

Regards,
Henrik Bringsøe 

The situation in Sweden is the same as in Denmark. But they do occur in the Town of Malmoe and Lund in ponds with P. esculenta, L. vulgaris, B. bufo and maybe a few others so some negative impact n these may occur, but probably not significant, adult T. scripta is after all mostly vegetarian (ca 75%, the rest mostly inverts, at least in North America).
Besides T. s. elegans I have also found the nominate subspecie and Pseudemys concinna, also a other Pseudemys specie that I saw to little of to id, not concinna.
Best Regards
Chistoffer Sjoholm 

Hejsan Christoffer,

Thanks for the information about occurrences in Malmö and Lund. Are there only a few individuals in these Scanian towns, or do you see several?

Yes, in the wild adult T. scripta to a great extent live on plant matter. However, when meat (various kind of animals) is available, they definitely prefer that rather than plants.

Kind regards,
Henrik Bringsøe 

Hej Hendrik!
Mostly single individuals, but in some ponds, like in the botanical garden in Lund or around the castle (Malmohus) in Malmo you can find more, sometimes over 10 in the later. But last winter was hard on them. Yes they do like meat, but are lousy at catching them compared to many other species, I have keept them togheter with fish to see, normaly works fine, but a dead fih is a other matter, disapear very fast. I realise that in the south they may cause problems and I strongly object displacement of animals (and plants). Was a bit sad when I found them in places where they breed, like Spain, Turkey and Thailand.
Kind Regards
Christoffer 

In the Botanical Garden of Copenhagen I was a bit surprised to see that the mortality after the winter 2009/2010 was low as I only found one dead turtle in the spring. There were ca. 15 adults which had survived.

For non-Scandinavians: The distance between Copenhagen and Malmoe is approx. 25 km, and there are some 30 km from Copenhagen to Lund.

Here is a photo of three basking adults from 21 May 2010:

And the dead one:

Kind regards,
Henrik Bringsøe