Turtles

In the Arboretum you'll occasionally see a turtle or two sunning themselves on the sides of the creek. There are actually quite a few turtles in the creek.

Many of the Arboretum turtle resident's are actually former pets of the Red Eared Slider variety. On a fairly annual basis Professor Brad Schaffer a Herpetologist in the Evolution and Ecology program traps out the non-native turtles, if you would like to adopt one and will promise never to release it back to the wild contact his lab. A study by the Schaffer lab has a discovered a sizable population of native Western Pond Turtles too, but the presence of rapidly growing non-native competition and the lack of dispersal sites puts into question the viability of population. Paper on the topic http://www2.eve.ucdavis.edu/shafferlab/pubs/SpinksBioCons2003.pdf

Turtles on a sunken branch in the Arboretum (2/26/05)

A turtle along the side of the creek in the Arboretum (2/26/05)