In 1990, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ coincided with a pet turtle boom, and unwanted red-eared sliders were later released into U.S. waters, where they competed with native turtles

In 1990, four crime-fighting, pizza-loving turtles took over American pop culture. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was already a hit comic and cartoon by the time its first live-action film hit theaters that year, and the franchise helped make turtles highly visible to a generation of children, while red-eared sliders were already widely available through the pet trade. Decades later, the environmental consequences of the pet trade are still turning up in ponds, lakes, and wetlands across the country, where red-eared sliders now compete with native turtle species.

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