A distant relative of the dinosaur, also how as a terrapin, has been spotted at the Punchbowl.

You might not think that these “living fossils” and reptilian wonders are not native to the UK, let alone Abergavenny, and you’d be right!

They’ve been imported from warmer climes and you can blame Leonard, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

Or as a generation of kids who were brought up to think sword-fighting reptiles were a thing would know them - the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

A ninja turtle is a bit of an oxymoron.

One moves as slow as a zombie on ketamine and the other is so lightning quick and so terrifyingly agile, that you’d probably only have to blink and there would be a samurai sword at your throat.

One spends its days paralysed by the sun and munching on leafy greens, and the other dedicates itself to a life of discipline, secrecy, and assassination.

There is no middle ground between the two, but that’s where the mutant bit comes in.

In the late 1980s and through the early 1990s, these kung-fu reptiles were all the rage for kids in the Wild West of the pre-internet era.

It wasn’t enough to idolise a speaking turtle who could beat you up and deliver cool one-liners at the same time, you kind of wanted to own one too.

And so pet terrapins became all the rage.

The trouble is, they didn’t do a lot, and kung-fu was definitely out of the question. And so they were put in their tanks or left in the fridge and forgotten about.

When the turtle-loving kids grew up and went to university, hundreds of terrapins were released into the wild and - flourished!

And that’s why terrapins have been spotted up the Punchbowl and elsewhere from time to time. Happy and content in their new home. Cowabunga!