Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A few months ago, I posted about an aggressive female in a 200 gallon pond with three female RES's, only one of which she harassed. Based on advice I got from the CA Turtle Club, I removed the "victim," who had injuries and adopted her out to the Turtle Club.

Shortly thereafter, the dominant female began going after the other two, one in particular (the one closest to her size). This time, there were a couple of differences:

1. It was ocassional, maybe a couple of times a day, and not constant.
2. The other turtles are more nimble and faster than her and get away without being bitten.
3. One turtle in particular seems to egg her on, rather than avoiding her by staying elsewhere in the pond.
4. They bask together in peace.

I guess I could go ahead and adopt out the aggressive female, but:

A. If I replace her with another one---a rescue that I would exchange her for---what is to say that the problem pops up again with either the new one being the aggressor, or one of the resident turtles deciding to exercize territoriality on the newbie? and

B. If I don't replace her, what is to say one of the resident females won't decide to pick on the other one?

In short, this might just be a chronic issue when keeping more than one RES (even all females, which I was assured would end my concerns a few years ago!). Perhaps my attitude should be that as long as nobody is getting injured, just let it be.

After all, we humans have to put up with obnoxious people, sometimes bullies, all the time, but we learn how to live with it, as long as it's just annoying and not dangerous. Any insights?

Well you could do anything you want. But if you see physical injuries occuring than it would be very cruel to allow this female to continue to harrass the others. I am a bit confused as to why someone would advise to remove the victim rather than the offender in the first place.

In my experience wil the many many sliders we get in at our rescue if an aggressive animal is removed for a short time from the environment and replaced again -- it may calm down. If not then it usually is an animal that is just plain aggressive by nature and we adopt them out as "single - only" animals.

Steve

First, where are you at? I am always curious about rescue places. Now, the story:

Unfortunately, I got bad advice two months ago from the biologist from the CA Turtle Club. I figured since she was a wildlife expert, I should listen to her. Her opinion was that the weak and injured victim turtle should be removed because in the wild animals tend to reject weaklings.

I adopted her out to that same CA Turtle Club, but in a few days, the aggressive female went to work on the other one and it steadily got worse.

The good news is that I called them back and adopted out the aggressive one---she will go into a single turtle environment or a very large pond where there is lots of territory (the original victim was long adopted out). Now they think that my pond, at 200 gallons, was just too small for her (she was quite big at nearly 12 inches).

So she is gone and the remaining two are living peacefully. I told the Turtle Club folks that I'd take in a juvenile female, but no more adults. I think if I introduce a new adult, the remaining two will get territorial, but I think a juvenile will not pose a threat to them and by the time she becomes an adult in several years, they will be used to her.

Or do you think I should just leave well enough alone? The pond certainly seems as if it could hold another RES.

We are on Long Island (Turtlerescues.org)

As far as another turtle it's a crapshoot really. Hard to say how everyone will react. Just make sure if you get one that is not extremely smaller than the others.

Steve