The rampant rise of red-eared terrapins is posing an ecological threat in a park in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture.

The turtles have been rapidly breeding in a popular pond in Irigaike Park since being abandoned by their owners.

The 38,000-sq.-meter pond, originally used for agriculture, used to be surrounded by pastoral landscape. But it gradually turned into a residential area as urbanization progressed in Nagakute, the fastest-growing city in the prefecture.