Pond Slider Trachemys Scripta Research Articles

Distribution of alien tetrapods in the Iberian Peninsula

We present a dataset that assembles occurrence records of alien tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) in the Iberian Peninsula, a coherent biogeographically unit where introductions of alien species have occurred for millennia. These data have important potential applications for ecological research and management, including the assessment of invasion risks, formulation of preventive and management plans, and research at the biological community level on alien species. This dataset summarizes inventories and data sources on the taxonomy and distribution of alien tetrapods in the Iberia Peninsula, comprising known locations from published literature, expert knowledge and citizen science platforms. An expert-based assessment process allowed the identification of unreliable records (misclassification or natural dispersion from native range), and the classification of species according to their status of reproduction in the wild. Distributional data was harmonized into a common area unit, the 10 × 10 km Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) system (n = 6,152 cells). The year of observation and/or year of publication were also assigned to the records. In total, we assembled 35,940 unique distribution records (UTM × species × Year) for 253 species (6 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 218 birds and 13 mammals), spanning between 1912 and 2020. The species with highest number of distribution records were the Mediterranean painted frog Discoglossus pictus (n = 59 UTM), the pond slider Trachemys scripta (n = 471), the common waxbill Estrilda astrild (n = 1,275) and the house mouse Mus musculus (n = 4,043), for amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, respectively. Most alien species recorded are native to Africa (33%), followed by South America (21%), Asia (19%), North America (12%) and Oceania (10%). Thirty-six species are classified by IUCN as threatened in their native range, namely 2 Critically Endangered (CR), 6 Endangered (EN), 8 Vulnerable (VU), and 20 species Near Threatened (NT). Species maps are provided in DataSet1, as well R code and GIS layers to update them as new records are obtained.

Attempted copulatory behaviour between two phylogenetically unrelated alien species (Coypu, Myocastor coypus, and Pond slider, Trachemys scripta): first evidence

We report the first case of sexual interaction between two phylogenetically unrelated species (coypu Myocastor coypus and pond slider Trachemys scripta, a freshwater pond turtle), both of them non-native in the study area, a remnant coastal wetland of Tyrrhenian, central Italy (41°57'34.0''N 12°02'58.0''E). We inductively propose two different hypotheses (masturbatory act due to intense sperm competition, or behaviour induced by female pheromones) to explain this peculiar observation.

Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Discrimination and Turnover in Pond Sliders Trachemys Scripta: Insights for Trophic Study of Freshwater Turtles

Abstract The ecologies of vertebrate species have been increasingly studied via stable isotope analyses of small quantities of body tissues. However, critical assumptions relating to the consistency in stable isotopic values in consumer tissues and their diet as well as the rate of incorporation of diet-derived stable isotopes into consumer tissues remain poorly validated for most taxa despite numerous stable isotope studies targeting natural systems. In this study, we measured stable carbon and nitrogen diet–tissue discrimination and elemental turnover in whole blood, red blood cells, blood plasma, brain, liver, pectoralis major muscle, pubioshiofemoralis internus muscle, stratum corneum (sc) dermis, and stratum germinativum (sg) dermis of Pond Sliders (Trachemys scripta) fed ad libitum on two isotopically distinct diets. Turtles were fed a soy-based control diet (32% protein, 3% lipids, 4% fiber), and after 146 d, a subset was switched to a fish meal-based experimental diet (44% protein, 24% lipids, 3% ...