Belgian Turtle Blues

Beautiful Bruges…. World Heritage Site, renowned for its Medieval architecture, Flemish paintings, lace, chocolate and canals. Known as the Venice of the North (or one of them, anyway, other contenders being Amsterdam and Birmingham) every year tourists from all over the globe flock to this historic Belgian city to marvel at its many attractions, soak up the ambience and enjoy the fine beers and Flemish cuisine (and yes, the next job the editor is applying for is with the Flemish Tourist Board). Some of you may be wondering where this leading. Have patience. All will be revealed very soon.

Anyway, by now you will have got the point that Bruges is very famous and has plenty to offer the visitor. However, up until recently, Bruges has not exactly been high profile as a ‘troublesome turtle hot-spot’. As many of you will already know, here in Bugle Conservation Corner we take an active interest in turtles (you can read more about initiatives taking place to encourage turtle conservation in the Rethymnon region in last month’s issue). The story we report on now is different from the norm, though, because it involves too many turtles being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It would appear that currently in Bruges the eco-system of the canals is at risk as a result of a turtle invasion. According to the Belgian press, a number of people who can no longer take care of their pet turtles and terrapins - for whatever reason - have taken to releasing them into Bruges’ waterways. Undoubtedly many do this with the best of intentions, thinking that it is a good idea to set a turtle free in this way. It isn’t. The turtles and terrapins compete aggressively with other canal life for vegetation, and also pose a threat to the local swan population by attacking chicks and eating eggs (the American bullfrog that makes a strange howling sound would also seem to be problematic, too, but we digress). Previous publicity programs don’t appear to have done much to stop this practice, but now the tide may be turning. Two students are now trying out specially designed turtle friendly snares at various locations on the canals, with promising results. But the message is clear, folks: “Please don’t bin that terrapin”.

Banana Bans and Cartography

On the grounds that people come under the category of Weird Wildlife too, we bring you the following ’human interest’ stories. In September, a primary school in Plymouth will be ’welcoming bananas back’ to its premises after imposing a two year ban on the fruit. Why were bananas banned? Health and safety issues to do with slippery skins in the playground, perhaps? No, not a bit of it. The actual reason for the ban was because one of the teachers has apparently got a potentially life threatening allergy to the fruit. As a result, pupils have been told not to bring bananas into school. Bananas are of course a healthier alternative as a lunchtime energy boost for children than a packet of crisps, and some of the children will be managing nut allergies, but hey. A spokesperson for Plymouth council who had only just found out about the ban said that this ’Sounded a bit over the top’. Absolutely!

And finally, this month’s geography prize goes to….ALITALIA! Italy’s flagship airline, recently re-launched under private ownership to a huge fanfare, played a blinder when they managed to leave Sicily off a map of the Mediterranean in their in-flight magazine. To make matters worse, they did this whilst correctly placing smaller islands such as Sardinia on the map. A passenger on the airline told Corriere della Sera that she noticed the error when she was on an Alitalia flight to….yes, you’ve guessed it, Sicily! The editor of the magazine, Aldo Canale apologized profusely, saying: “We have run lots of editions on the beauty of Sicily and we would never dream of eliminating it from maps of Italy”. We’re not sure that Aldo has actually done himself many favours with this explanation….