Although it may not be as obvious as a snakehead fish, small, unwanted turtles that keep popping up on city property are a rising concern.
Recently, Hilary Wilson, of HomeFinders Animal Rescue Society, said there's several pet turtles in Burnaby's Central Park that definitely don't belong - despite the potential ramifications to the surrounding ecology.
Central Park is no stranger to having an invasive creature that's not quite like the others, such as the infamous snakehead found last year. But it's harder to tell a native turtle apart from the rest - and it's a problem that's hard to curb.
"There are actually a disturbing amount across the whole Lower Mainland," Wilson said about finding pet turtles in city parks. "They are from Mill Lake to Stanley Park and beyond. It's a problem in the thousands."
Wilson said her not-for-profit organization often gets red-eared sliders, which is the most common type of pet turtle up for purchase. Burnaby's only native shelled-friend is the painted turtle.
"However, we get map turtles, snappers, yellow bellies, and displaced painted (turtles), which we turn over immediately to the (local) government," Wilson said in an email interview. "There is no solution for these guys."
With reptile rescues full, including HomeFinders, it's hard to keep up with the issue, Wilson said.
"We get calls from animal control in (Port Coquitlam), Richmond and Burnaby," she explained. "It never stops."
Wilson said she'll often get turtles in poor condition, either missing limbs, eyes, or half their shell.
"They are all dying, they have shell rot, pneumonia, and are slowly starving due to lack of heat," she added. "It's horrific."
Melinda Yong is an environmental technician with the city, and says she doesn't often field calls about turtles that don't belong because the native and invasive kinds are hard to tell apart.
"When you look at the whole thing with the snakehead fish last year, that was definitely a dumping," Yong told the Burnaby NOW. "Central Park pond is a man-made pond, so anything that's living there now has been left by somebody."
Yong said invasive species, whether turtles, plants or squirrels, are an ongoing issue the city deals with and requires more education for the public. Red-eared sliders will have a red marking over its eyes, while the native painted turtle will have red markings on its underbelly.
"The red-eared slider is typically found in pet shops and it will basically take over the habitat where our painted turtle would be," she said. "And it goes back to the whole issue, parallel to invasive plants. A lot of these pet shop species are usually foreign and when they get out into the local environment they tend to be bigger and more aggressive and more voracious eaters."
Yong said most people don't know that grey and black squirrels are also an invasive species from Europe that turned out to be more large and aggressive than the native squirrels.
"They crowd out and take over habitat where our native squirrel would normally live," she said. "You hardly ever see our native squirrel."
Similarly, invasive plant species are also more aggressive and take over native areas quickly.
"When you look at native species, they specifically live in harmony with each other," Yong said. "They'll eat the local plants and use local vegetation for habitat and co-exist with local species. Invasive species tend to eat everything so that nothing else will survive, and take over an area."
Yong said if the pet turtles are being dumped, it's not ensuring that they'll have a good place to live, either.
"A dog could attack it, somebody else can abuse it, as well," she said. "It's not a nice fate for something that used to be a pet."
Locals who want to take turtles that don't belong out of the pond should be careful too, as it could spread diseases.
"Some of the animals that do live out in the wild do carry disease," she added. "People shouldn't be taking some home either."
