Feral reptiles

When pet turtles get sick or their owners tire of them, they are tossed or flushed into habitat occupied by native turtles. Red-eared sliders, for example, native to the Mississippi drainage from Illinois south, are now established in the wild all over the world. In Washington they are threatening the vanishing Pacific pond turtle. In southeastern USA they are compromising the genetic integrity of yellow-bellied sliders by breeding with them. Meanwhile, in the Mississippi system they are in decline. The European Union has banned the import of red-eared sliders because of the damage they are said to be doing to European pond turtles.