Trachemys scripta elegans (Wied, 1838) is a freshwater turtle that occurs in the Mississippi Valley, USA (Ernst & Lovich, 2009). Due to the vivid colored shell of hatchlings, the species was introduced in the animal pet trade in the 1950s and rapidly became the most commonly sold turtle all over the world (Franke & Telecky, 2001; Ernst & Lovich, 2009). Statistics are impressive with about 52 million specimens exported from USA during the 1989-1997 years and more than 23 million during the 1998-2002 years (Franke & Telecky, 2001; Schlaepfer, Hoover and Dodd Jr., 2005).

It is a medium sized species; adult males and females can attain, respectively, 20 and 28 cm of carapace length (Ernst & Lovich, 2009). This is one of the reasons that sooner or later almost all turtle “owners” release their animals somewhere from city parks to natural environments (Ferronato et al., 2009; F. B. Molina personal observation). Invasive species are a matter of concern because they can impact native species through competitive exclusion, niche displacement, hybridization, introgression, predation and even extinction (Mooney & Cleland, 2001). Trachemys s. elegans is a generalist species with broad ecological niche (Ernst & Lovich, 2009) that has been introduced

in many countries in Europe (Cadi & Joly, 2004; Pupins, 2007), Africa (Baard & Villiers, 2000), Asia (Haramura, Yamane and Mori, 2008; Xu et al., 2012), Oceania (Burgin, 2006; Feldman, 2007), North America (Townsend et al., 2002; Thomson, Spinks and Shaffer, 2010), Central America (Powell, 2005), and South America (Iriarte, Lobos and Jaksic, 2005; Alcalde et al., 2012). It can compete with local species (Cadi & Joly, 2004; Polo-Cavia, López and Martín, 2008, 2011) and can transmit bacteria (Hidalgo-Vila et al., 2008) and worms (Verneau et al., 2011) to them. It is included among top 100 world’s worst invasive alien species (Lowe et al., 2000).

In Brazil, the commercialization of T. s. elegans is forbidden since 1998 (Magalhães & São-Pedro, 2012). Nevertheless, the species was already detected as an invasive organism in many municipalities of the states of São Paulo (Molina, 2006; Barbo, 2008; Ferronato et al., 2009; Cristino, 2013), Rio de Janeiro (Salles & Silva-Soares, 2010), Espírito Santo (Silva-Soares et al., 2011), Minas Gerais (H. C. Costa, personal communication), Paraná (Instituto Horus, 2005), Santa Catarina (Tortato, Bressan and Kunz, 2014), Rio Grande do Sul (Quintela, Loebmann and Gianuca, 2006; Bujes, 2011), Mato Grosso do Sul (Instituto Horus, 2005), Goiás (Instituto Horus, 2005), Distrito Federal (Horta, 2004; Vieira & Costa, 2006), Tocantins (Instituto Horus, 2005) and Amazonas (Instituto Horus, 2005). Almost nothing is known about its population status in Brazilian ecosystems.

In the morning of July 08 2013, one of us (RAM) observed a melanistic male T. s. elegans in a pond watered by a creek that runs from Paraibuna reservoir, in a private property close to the 53rd km of Tamoios highway, in the municipality of Paraibuna, state of São Paulo, Brazil (−23.511619°; −45.547192°; figure 1).

Herpetology Notes, volume 7: 437-441 (2014) (published online on 5 July 2014)

The presence of the Red-eared slider, Trachemys scripta elegans (Wied, 1838) (Testudines, Emydidae), an invasive species,

in the Paraibuna river basin, Southeastern Brazil

Renato Augusto Martins1, André Moreira Assalim1 and Flavio de Barros Molina2,3,*

1 Instituto Biovida para Conservação da Biodiversidade. Rua Gentil Moreira, 147, Centro, CEP 16370-000, Promissão, SP, Brasil

2 Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo. Av. Nazaré 481, Ipiranga, CEP 04263-000, São Paulo, SP, Brasil

3 Universidade de Santo Amaro, Campus I, Rua Prof. Enéas de Siqueira Neto 340, Jardim das Imbuias, CEP 04829-300, São Paulo, SP, Brasil

* Corresponding author e-mail: fbmolina@uol.com.br

During the rainy season, from November to February, the creek overflows and connects with the pond forming a possible water course for turtle dispersal (figure 2). Paraibuna reservoir has a maximum surface area of 224 km², a maximum depth of 98m, and is formed by the waters of Paraibuna and Paraitinga rivers (Dias et al., 2005). It is part of the Paraiba do Sul river basin that runs toward the Atlantic Ocean and is situated between the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the most populated areas in Brazil. Although Paraiba do Sul river valley is highly impacted by anthropogenic activities, presenting margins dominated by grasses, Paraibuna and Paraitinga rivers, that drain Bocaina Plateau, are better preserved with margins covered mainly by shrubs and trees (Pinto et al., 2009).

The specimen showed intense ontogenetic melanism (Lovich, McCoy and Garstka, 1990) and had elongated front claws. It was measured with a caliper (210 mm of

Renato Augusto Martins et al.438

Figure 1. Map showing the location (red dot) of the pond where a male of Trachemys scripta elegans was seen in the municipality of Paraibuna, state of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil.

Figure 2. Pond where one adult male of Trachemys scripta elegans was observed in the municipality of Paraibuna, state of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil. The yellow arrow shows the pond and the red arrow shows one arm of Paraibuna reservoir. The white line refers to the water course between the reservoir and the pond (satellite image downloaded with Google Earth, captured on January 6, 2014).

The presence of the invasive Trachemys scripta elegans in Southeastern Brazil 439

carapace length, 160 mm of carapace width, and 170 mm of plastron length), weighed with a dynamometer (910 g), photographed (figure 3) and released.

To check the possible existence of a turtle population in the area, the four local residents (a 65 and a 40 year old men, a 35 year old woman, and an 11 year old girl) were interviewed. According to them, adult and young red-eared slider turtles (ca. 5 to 20 cm of carapace length) are commonly seen in local ponds and creeks watered by the reservoir. We can be sure that they correctly identified the species because native fauna is composed only of side-necked turtle species. The eldest resident interviewed dated their presence to twenty years ago. According to him, the animals are seen mainly during December and January, a period that correspond to the end of spring and beginning of summer in south hemisphere. At São Paulo Zoo, located about 110 km to the west, T. s. elegans was seen successfully nesting in outside exhibits from September to February (F. B. Molina, personal observation).

The possible presence of a Trachemys scrita elegans population in the Paraibuna reservoir could represent a threat to local species, such as Phrynops geoffroanus (Schweigger, 1812) and Hydromedusa tectifera Cope,

1869. As aquatic macroinvertebrates and fishes are important items in their diet (Souza & Abe, 2000; Bonino et al., 2009; Ernst & Lovich, 2009; Alcalde, Derocco and Rosset, 2010; Deconte, 2012), the occurrence of feeding niche displacement and even competitive exclusion cannot be ruled out.

It is also important to consider that this place is situated not far from upper Paraiba do Sul river (ca. 20km south), where the endangered chelid turtle Mesoclemmys hogei (Mertens, 1967) is found in the middle and lower course (Drummond & Molina, 2008), and from the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar (ca. 10 km north), the largest continuous extension of Atlantic Rain Forest (a hotspot) preserved in Brazil (Instituto Florestal, 2008), and an important habitat of Hydromedusa maximiliani (Mikan, 1820) and H. tectifera (Marques & Sazima, 2004; Famelli et al., 2011).

There is therefore an urgent need for conservation measures. We agree with the suggestions made by Ferronato et al. (2009), especially the need to develop research on the impact of Trachemys scripta elegans on Neotropical freshwater turtles and to establish a control program designed to remove alien turtle specimens from natural environments.

Figure 3. Melanistic adult male of Trachemys scripta elegans observed in a pond in the municipality of Paraibuna, state of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil (photo by Renato A. Martins).

Acknowledgements. We would like to thank the companies Ecologic – Centro de Avaliações e Perícias Ambientais and DERSA – Desenvolvimento Rodoviário S.A., for supporting the work and contributing financially. We also thank Bruno de Oliveira Ferronato and three anonymous reviewers for commenting the manuscript.

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Accepted by Diogo Provete; associate editor: Spartak Litvinchuk

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