You'l Never Believe It

[tropicman]

One day over the week of constantly hot days iwent fishing for carp and i was walking merrally down the canal bank when i caught a glimse of a little head popping out of the water in the centre of the canal so i turned and had a proper gaze at it and it is then when i noticed that it was a Terrapin but i have no clue how it got there my only guesses are that it has become to big for the tank it was in and someone has set it free in the canal or it may of escaped but he looked perfectly healthy and that is now the 3rd terrapin reorted to be around my area in the canal but my question is will it be ok in the canal because some people have told me it wou;ld thrive in the canal but i can not agree giving the conditions of our canal water help apprieciated if the canal is no good i am thinking of tryin to catch it wit a dingy and a net so help needed folks

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah, it could have been someones pet originally and then become too much for the owner to care for, so they released it into the wild (which is one of the worst posible things someone can do). Check this news article out for example;

http/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4138676.stm

And another (see the bottom of the page);

http/www.alienencounters.org.uk/identifying_aliens.html

What you saw was probably a red eared terrapin, you should probably report the incident to somone like the RSPCA or local council, as these turtles can be very damaging to local native ecosystems. I suppose you could try your luck if you had a big koi net and try and fish it out, but i heard these terrapins can have a nasty bite, so be careful.