Ultimately, if too many animal species disappear, Earth’s ecosystems may lose their balance. Zooming out, if Los Angeles County’s native turtles are endangered, the future of turtle species in the southwest pond could be at risk. “Our turtles have unique genetics that maintain the species’ biodiversity.” “If we don’t take action they will disappear,” said Rosie Daggett, chief conservation biologist for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservation District, via email. In some isolated places in Los Angeles County, Shaffer said, the southwestern pond turtle can be seen, and it is a candidate for listing under the US Endangered Species Act, along with the closely related northwestern pond turtle. Once upon a time, the native southwestern pond turtle was “running through the rivers and streams of the Greater Los Angeles Basin,” said Brad Shaffer, director of the Lakritz Center for Conservation Science at UCLA and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Instead, many of them live in lands hundreds of miles away in Mississippi Valleyfrom Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico (although its natural range can be as far west as eastern New Mexico, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife).īut Southern California has a native tortoise. One problem, though: In general, the turtles you see in city parks across Los Angeles are not native to California.
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