Silence of Ponds: The Rise of the Red Slider Turtle

If you are in Vancouver and want to see wildlife, there is no better spot than Jericho Beach Park. The Pond at Jericho Beach is a favourite of local birders and a wildlife hotspot. Visit Jericho on any given day, and you might see: beavers, herons, owls, kingfishers, turtles, otters, muskrats, and bald eagles. During the Folk Music Festival at Jericho, it is a common sight to see festival goers spend more time watching the pond wildlife than the musicians. We are truly lucky to have such a spot in our city.

The pond is actually a recent creation in the park. It was only created in the late 1970s as the Federal Government, which was using it as an air force base, sold the land to the City of Vancouver to be transformed into a park. If you look at air photos pre-1970s, you will not see the pond, because it was not there.

Air Photo of Jericho from sometime between 1942-45. Encircled is the current location of the pond, which in this photo seems to be being used for plane storage! The street at the bottom of the image is West 4^th. Note that the sports field is still in the same spot today. Photo From the City of Vancouver Archives^[i]

The Jericho area was originally a salt marsh where ocean salt water met fresh water streams. It had an L-shaped Cove, where ocean water came farther inland. In old drawings, the tip of the cove does seem to match up to where the east end of the pond is now located. There was also an active Indigenous village and log cabin at Jericho when George Vancouver arrived. Fascinatingly, there are remnants of a Midden, a historic area used for disposing of domestic waste, at the east end of the pond as well. This is a story for another article though!

This L-shaped Cove, later got named Jerry’s Cove after Jeremiah Rogers, who set up a logging camp there and logged most of the north end of Point Grey and Pacific Spirit Park. Jerry’s Cove soon got shortened to Jericho, which is what we call the area today.

When the City of Vancouver bought Jericho in the 70s, they substantially changed the landscape. They tore down the military buildings, mass-planted shade trees, and dug the pond.

All this work was spent on creating an idyllic, very European Public Park. The exact type of park that did not match well with what the actual native environment of the area was. This originally was a salt marsh that regularly flooded and a temperate rainforest of giant coniferous trees. Changing it to a freshwater pond, surrounded by non-native, broadleaf shade trees, and regularly fresh-mowed grass, had some very strange impacts.

Jericho as it looked in 1890 after already having been logged in the early 1850s (Most of the trees in this photo are probably already second growth). Photo from the City of Vancouver Archives[ii]

Newly created Jericho Pond and planted broadleaf trees at Jericho in 1977. Photo from the City of Vancouver Archives^[iii]

The biggest impact was that by building a unique habitat that wouldn’t naturally occur in Vancouver, native species struggled to survive and non-native species began to invade and dominate. The Park being surrounded by human neighborhoods, especially wealthier ones that had more disposable income, meant that a lot of these non-native species were escaped (or released) pets. This is, of course, where Jericho’s Rabbits come from. Rabbits are not nearly as cuddly a pet as pet owners want them to be, and a lot of them have been released in the park over the last 50 years.

One of my favourite examples of released pets in Jericho is the “Jericho Parrot” of the 1980s. A parrot apparently survived in the park on its own – although it did make heavy use of bird feeders! – for at least 2.5 years.

The Jericho Parrot eating a pear at a bird feeder. Photo from City of Vancouver Archives^[iv]

However, of all the non-native species introduced, the one that will likely prove the most problematic in the long run is the Red Slider Turtle.

I loved The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid and still do. The appeal of ninja teenagers who love pizza and are always getting in trouble, but figuring it out in the end, was a relatable dream for most young kids and teenagers. Add to this that they were a fascinating reptile that could be easily found at local parks, and it combined everything childhood Ryan was interested in.

As the Ninja Turtles were taking over the pop culture world in the 80s and 90s, having a turtle as a pet became the dream for many young boys and girls. Red Ear Slider turtles from the southeast of the US were the favourite species for pet turtles. They were easy to breed and, when young, were slightly larger than the size of a toonie. Their small size made them undeniably adorable and easy to hold by young children. Parents were helpless before such cute turtles, and Red Sliders were bought in droves as pets.

Red Slider turtles grow quickly. Soon growing to almost 10x their original size. They grow like mutants! Soon their size became unmanageable for families as parents grew frustrated by the large aquariums required and kids moved on to new obsessions like Pokémon. So, not being aware that Red Slider Turtles would cause ecosystem havoc, Vancouver families began releasing their turtles into the Jericho Pond.

Young Red Slider Turtle. Photo via az-animals.com

I’ve always been a bit curious what these domesticated species ‘release’ looks like when they happen. Do they know they are doing something wrong and sneak the species into the pond in the dead of night or early hours when no one is watching? Or is it more brazen release, not caring or not knowing what the impacts of what they are doing?

I had assumed the more open and public releases were a thing of the past, with most people now having the knowledge to hide it, knowing it’s not socially acceptable at the least. I have had to rethink that opinion though after watching someone openly – nodding hello to passing walkers – dropping multiple buckets of yard and plant trimmings into a local native forest. No wonder some areas of Pacific Spirit Park still have “No dumping yard waste” signs.

The Red Slider, with the Ninja Turtles global reach, was soon being dumped in ponds all over the world. Today the Red Slider ranks in the top 100 invasive species and is one of the few species to have invaded every continent except for Antarctica. Native Turtle populations all over the world are declining rapidly, but Red Slider’s population keeps growing. This has the added effect that people aren’t aware that turtle populations are in decline, because turtles now seem so common. Practically every turtle you see near an urban area is now a Red Slider.

Jericho being so full of non-native species makes it an especially hard place to have enthusiasm about sometimes. A couple of years ago, a friend visiting Vancouver told me in great excitement that she got to see the rare, native Western Painted Turtle. Her just telling me this immediately created this feeling of uncomfortableness in me, because I knew it likely was a Red Slider she saw. Her then telling me she saw it at Jericho confirmed it.

Red Slider turtles outcompete the Western Painted Turtle, pushing or chasing them off the all-important Basking Spots that turtles need for body temperature regulation.  They steal nesting spots from them and overconsume their food sources. Red Sliders are also believed to often carry diseases that they are more immune to, but will kill the Painted Turtle.

Red Sliders can live up to 40 years in captivity and around 30 in the wild.  With a lack of predators, it is likely there are some Red Sliders in Jericho Pond that have been there since the 90s. They start to grow much slower once they reach an older age, and I have seen some large ones in Jericho that suggest they are around 30 years old.

Red Slider Turtle at Jericho. Photo via Kha Nguyen

One of the saving graces for Red Sliders was their inability to reproduce on the West Coast. The climate was just too different, and their eggs would not grow properly. Red Sliders had not ‘naturalized’, meaning that the population was solely made up of released pets and would eventually be gone, assuming we stopped releasing more. However, in 2015 BC had its first record of successfully reproduced Sliders in Delta. Red Sliders are adapting to their new habitat.

This is particularly worrisome because juvenile – teenage, if you will – Red Sliders are mainly carnivorous compared to adult Red Sliders that mostly eat plants, but will hunt small creatures on occasion. To fuel their massive growth rate, juvenile Red Sliders will mass-consume insects, tadpoles, fish, snails, spiders, and smaller reptiles.^[v]  A friend (Who originally pitched me the idea of writing this piece) once came across a dead seagull at Jericho and then jumped back in shock when it started moving and shaking. Was it insects eating it from within? No, it was a Red Slider Turtle beneath it, happily chewing away at the dead seagull!

Luckily, I have seen any nesting at Jericho, so I don’t think Red Sliders have yet to successfully reproduce. We will likely know once we start seeing smaller turtles in the pond! Right now, they are all adult-sized.

There has been a recent shocking discovery with the Red Slider Turtles in the last few years. Something that has been rumored for decades but never officially documented till now. A Red Slider killing and eating ducklings.

In the April 2023 video capture of this, you can see a Red Slider getting closer and closer to some Mallard Ducklings.^[vi] The ducklings and their mother are seemingly unconcerned. Then the Red Slider suddenly clamps its jaws down on the duckling, and the mother panics, swooping at the turtle’s shell and doing no damage at all. In the next second, the turtle vanishes underwater with the duckling, and the water goes still. It was like it was never there at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOXB_kPYGp4

Someone once told me they saw this at Jericho: only the Red Slider swam up beneath the duckling and then pulled it underwater, drowning it, as the mother looked around frantically for her vanished child. This ability the Sliders have to capture ducklings and then vanish is a bit ninja-like, isn’t it? If we put this together with the fact that the Red Sliders grow so rapidly, they are like mutants, and the fact that they are most deadly and dangerous when they are juvenile teenagers…. Jericho has its own population of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

References

[i]Matthews, James Skitt, Major. VLP 186.4 - [Aerial view of West Point Grey, Kitsilano, Dunbar - Southlands and University Endowment Lands]. Royal Canadian Air Force Official Photograph. AM54-S4-: VLP 186.4. City of Vancouver Archives. Between 1942 and 1945 https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/aerial-view-of-west-point-grey-kitsilano-dunbar-southlands-and-university-endowment-lands [Cropped to better show Jericho]

[i]Matthews, James Skitt, Major. VLP 186.4 - [Aerial view of West Point Grey, Kitsilano, Dunbar - Southlands and University Endowment Lands]. Royal Canadian Air Force Official Photograph. AM54-S4-: VLP 186.4. City of Vancouver Archives. Between 1942 and 1945 https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/aerial-view-of-west-point-grey-kitsilano-dunbar-southlands-and-university-endowment-lands [Cropped to better show Jericho]

[ii] Matthews, James Skitt, Major. Be P41 - [Tidal flats Jericho beach]. AM54-S4-: Be P41. City of Vancouver Archives. 1890. https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/tidal-flats-jericho-beach

[iii] Vancouver (B.C.). Planning Department. CVA 780-440 - Jericho Park. COV-S511---: CVA 780-440. City of Vancouver Archives. 1977. https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/jericho-park-6

[iv] The Vancouver Courier. 2008-127.00126 - Parrot eating a pear at a feeder in Jericho Park. Parrot has been living free and easy for about 2 1/2 years here. AM1528-S1-F006-: 2008-127.00126. City of Vancouver Archives. 1989. https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/parrot-eating-a-pear-at-a-feeder-in-jericho-park-parrot-has-been-living-free-and-easy-for-about-2-1-2-years-here

[v] Ramsay, Neil F., et al. "The red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) in Asia: a review." Biological invaders in inland waters: Profiles, distribution, and threats (2007): 161-174.

[vi] Glorioso, Brad M., Alex Landry, and Gabrielle Mandill. "Video Evidence of a Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) Preying Upon a Live Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) Duckling in Louisiana." Southeastern Naturalist 23.4 (2025): N90-N93.