Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake and Temple of Literature are seeing a boom in red-eared slider population.

Â

Every morning, scores of sliders climb up on rocks and branches in the lake to sunbathe, according to VnExpress.

Â

Vendors in the area say pagoda visitors released the sliders into the lake as a symbol of mercy.

Â

In the meantime, slider peddlers catch them by the score using fishing hooks.

Â

They range in size from a kilogram to about the size of a big toe.

Â

Ha Dinh Duc, a scientist who has authored research about the lake for the past decade, said he first captured a photo of the sliders in the lake in 2004.

Â

Before that, he said, someone had produced an image of the invasive turtles in the lake dating back to 1997.

Â

“I can’t tell how many red-eared sliders there are in the lake right now, but there has been a sudden increase from the past,” Duc said. “This species reproduces very fast, just like the yellow snail (oc buou vang) which is destructive to paddy fields.”

Â

Oc buou vang served as Vietnam’s first big lesson on the dangers of foreign fauna.

Â

Several pairs were imported in 1975 from South America and bred in ponds as a potential cooking source.

Â

But the creatures went on to become the nemesis of the region’s rice and water spinach crops.Â

Â

Duc said the sliders won’t endanger the famed Hoan Kiem Turtle but they will disrupt the food sources and habitat of smaller creatures.

Â

“I have, on many occasions, brought up the dangers posed by the red-eared sliders but no agencies have taken measures to mitigate them.”

Â

The Thien Quang Well inside the Temple of Literature also contains many sliders.

Â

They’ve even come to entertain visitors to the UNESCO heritage site by swimming on the water surface or climbing up the stairs of the well.

Â

Dang Kim Ngoc, a manager at the temple, said the sliders have come from two sources: from waterways when the city was flooded in heavy rains and from visitors who deliberately released them.

Â

Nguyen Minh Tuan, head manager of the Sword Lake area, said if the government doesn’t want to keep the sliders, it should issue a policy to get rid of them — such as using them for food.

Â

Duc added that the government should enforce a strict ban on the import and sale of the sliders. It should also seek to educate residents about the ecological harm they cause.

Â

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, red-eared sliders came to Vietnam from North America and can live from 50-70 years.

Â

The creature invades the habitat of local turtles, disrupting the ecological balance by gobbling up food supplies and potentially spreading typhoid.

Â

The turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans) was included on a list of the world’s 100 worst invasive species by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) – a global network of scientific and policy experts on invasive species, organized under the auspices of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).