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Podcast: Wild Tales | Nature Podcast
Episode: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pet Craze
Description: It’s the 1980s and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has burst onto the scene, scoring millions of young fans.
Half-human, half-turtle fighters Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo originated as comic book characters before spawning phenomenally popular films and cartoons. But “turtlemania” also inadvertently sparked a pet craze that ultimately led to an invasive species problem. Red-eared terrapins were a particularly popular pet. But many people didn’t realise they would grow from a matchbox-sized hatchling to a dinner-plate sized adult that lives for more than 40 years. As a result a significant number of fres...