| Summary: | Pond Sliders, Trachemys scripta (Thunberg in Schoepff, 1792),are among the widest-spread animal species outside their native range (TTWG, 2017). Mainly through the international pet trade this species has been introduced to at least 76 countries and all continents but Antarctica (TTWG, 2017). In addition, habitat suitability modelling has demonstrated that the current range of this species can expand even further (Rödder et al., 2009; Rodrigues et al., 2016; Espindola et al., 2019).In Europe, successful reproduction has been reported from several mainly southern locations: France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain (Martínez-Silvestre et al., 1997; Cadi et al., 2004; Bruekers et al., 2006; Pérez-Santigosa et al., 2008; Crescente et al., 2014; Standfuss et al., 2016; Martins et al., 2018). However, winter survival of adults and successful reproduction have also been reported from more northerly areas: Austria, Germany, and in Switzerland (Wüthrich, 2004; Pieh and Laufer, 2006; Kleewein, 2014; Schradin, 2020). Moreover, its Eurasian range is even larger: e.g., presence in Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and Sweden (Najbar, 2001; Herder, 2007; Pupins, 2007; Semenov, 2010; Tzankov et al., 2015; TTWG, 2017). Indeed, as the climate warms the range of T. scripta is also expected to increase, and successful reproduction will likely occur in more northern areas (Banha et al., 2017; Spear et al., 2018; Espindola et al., 2019). Peer reviewed
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