Emys orbicularis
The “wetland garbage collector”
The pond turtle is so called because it is partly a scavenger, eating dead animals, especially fish. It also feeds on prey and plants.
This gregarious species lives in wetlands with fresh, calm and sunny waters: marshes, ditches, canals, etc. Discreet and very fearful, it seeks out spaces where human disturbance is low and where the vegetation of the banks allows it to hide from predators.
In France, it is now found only in a few isolated areas in the centre and west, in Provence (mainly the Camargue and the Massif des Maures), Languedoc, Corsica and the Rhône-Alpes region. Indeed, she was a victim of hunting for her meat and the use of fish traps where she drowned. Now the main threats are the degradation of wetlands, while agricultural machinery destroys nests, or even crushes females and young. Not to mention the competition with the Florida tortoise, road collisions, angling hooks and catches. Yet it is totally protected!
At the zoo, you can observe them with leprous emydes in a basin adjoining the viviarium… Except from October to April because they hibernate, sitting at the bottom of the water or in the mud!
