Invasives of Camely Street Nature Park

Here’s a little insight into what my friend Katherine and I have been up to this week at Camley Street Nature Park, just down the road from UCL…

Yep you're looking at two of the newest volunteers for the Wildlife on your Waterways project, co-ordinated by the London Wildlife Trust! We had an excellent morning meeting the team whilst getting a tour of the site, and as an added bonus I also stumbled upon some great material for this weeks blog.

Camley Street Nature Park is home to a large pond which hosts a variety of aquatic plants, birds, insects and fish throughout the year. However, over the recent years chicks and fish have been predated on by an invasive species which lurks below the surface, can you guess which one?

Ok, so that is a near on impossible task! Instead, think back to the early 90s when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were on TV, did you ever fancy raising your very own Ninja Turtle sidekick which could fight off extraterrestrial Aliens? Well you weren't the only one! As a consequence of the hit TV show, the numbers of terrapins (in particular the red-eared terrapin) imported from the USA to be kept as pets in the UK went through the roof. However, instead of fighting aliens, the owners actually brought in aliens! The unsuspecting TMNT fans were not ready for their baby terrapin to grow to up to 4lb and live for as long as 40 years. So when the novelty of owning a "hero in a half shell" inevitably wore off, terrapins were dumped into water ways around the country (Vaughan, 2013).

Photo taken from Patel-Carstairs, 2013; Photo: ALAMY. 

But how did the terrapins make their way to Camely street pond?

Photo of regents canal taken from the nature park

You can just about make out from the photo that Regents canal (left) is the main water source for this pond (right). In general canals provide a super network for terrapins to move around the country until they can find the perfect habitat such Camely Street Nature Park, where the urban environment creates a 'heat island effect' (London Wildlife Trust, 2013). Interestingly, it is thought that the future terrapin populations may thrive due to warmer summers as a consequence of climate change (Wilkinson, 2013). Potentially creating a big problem for native species in the coming years! 

There is currently ongoing research into the terrapin population of Regents Canal. You can help increase scientific understanding by ensuring that you report any terrapin sightings to the Canal & River Trust (customer.services@canalrivertrust.org.uk). 

Learning about that terrapin population of Regents canal has highlighted to me that man-made transport systems as another way that humans have facilitated the spread of invasives. Additionally, with Kings Cross St Pancreas railway station just around the corner from the park, there is even international links for terrestrial species to hitchhike around the globe!

Another invasive species that I was interested to discover whilst exploring the nature park was the Japanese Knot Weed - these articles (1, 2) are worth a quick read just to show how destructive this species can really be!

Plus if you want to find out more about the great work that London Wildlife Trust are organising down at Camley Street Nature park then checking out my friend Katheirne's blog is an absolute must - she's written an excellent post titled "A Field Trip, and Gardens in the City"

Have a good week!