In the natural world, Human-beings aren't the only species who take full advantage of the spoils that Mother Nature provides. Foraging skills, or the activity of finding food or provisions abound.
On our way to work this morning, @knarly327 and I stopped to reflect as we discovered one turtle nest after another that had been pilfered. They'd been completely emptied of all their buried treasures.
Egg after egg was broken, the contents eaten and the shells left behind. It was like a great banquet or feast had been recently enjoyed. The guests who'd received an invitation to this party, made no bones about the fact that they considered the offerings that they found presented before them, to be a rare delicacy. A taste, I might add, that they don't experience frequently because of the sheer number of eggs that were consumed, in what appeared to be one sitting. It looked like a feeding frenzy had occurred in a short time period.
You can see that the remnants of the shells that were left behind were completely licked clean. No egg whites or yellow yolks were left. Absolutely nothing was wasted.
The excavating skills were second to none. The precise, exact location of each independent nest was identified and dug out. With great efficiency, the soil was removed from each nests' hole and lay just outside the entrances. It looked like the handiwork of a skilled "cradle robber".
All in all, we counted 5 independent nests within a 30 foot radius that had been robbed. All the contents of the eggs were eaten from each nest. Obviously there was some hunger driving this action.
In addition to the pieces of rubbery shells that had been discarded as waste, the only other evidence that was left behind were some tracks in the gravel and sand.
My guess is a fairly large, stealthy raccoon who knew exactly what it was after and exactly what to do to get its hands on this nutritiously dense food. A skilled forager!
What do you think?
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~ Rebecca Ryan
That's why every turtle needs all the help they can get! There are so many more raccoons these days. When I lived in Michigan, there were programs for digging up turtle nests and brooding their eggs under more protected conditions, especially for Blandings turtles. Then they would release the tiny turtles once they hatched. Raccoons are such good foragers!
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Hi @haphazard-hstead!
Raccoons work with great precision. They never dig a spot in error. The exceptionally interesting piece to this is that we had a huge series of thunderstorms that moved through our area. They brought heavy rains with them, which should have washed out the smell of the buried turtle eggs. Plus the rain made it hard to tell visually where the turtles had nested. When we came up on the stretch of road it looked like the foraging had recently occurred...maybe only a few hours before. The carnage looked relativity fresh.
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It would be really something to have a sense of smell like raccoons. The closest I have ever gotten is after being in caves for 8-10 hours or more. That first 30 seconds on the surface is a flood of so many distinct smells - different kinds of animals, trees, grasses, and more. And then, flash, it's all gone. I don't know whether our sensors get overwhelmed, or the processing of the signals.
I think the rain makes the scent more pronounced right at the ground surface. Underneath, there's ground heat - that's why the turtle laid their eggs there. That goes upward to the surface at night, carrying the scents. When it's warm and dry, that scent gets dispersed so easily because the air has few molecules in a given space. When the air has moisture in it after a cooling rain, in the night the air will stay close to the ground and there are a lot more molecules for the odor of the eggs to be carried around by. The same goes for even cool, dry air, like in the dry desert washes at night.
If you have any feral cats around, you can probably smell their spraying spots a lot better in the morning air compared to the afternoon. I wonder if anyone will ever invent an 'odor concentrator' so we could smell what the animals do. Then I would be able to find all my neighbor's bird feeder peanuts that the squirrels hide in my yard! : )
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That explanation gets 100% of my upvoting power today! So we have been having rain here almost every other day. The morning we saw the aftermath of the raccoons vs turtles, we'd had a thunderstorm with fork lightning so this makes me wonder if that accelerated the sent through the air.
I do notice that with cats and with the herd of dairy cows that live around the corner from my house. Smells are different depending on the time of day and of course what direction the wind is blowing in. Thanks for this great piece of information. ;)
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Wow and thanks, @rebeccaryan! I'm glad you found that helpful. With those dairy cows, "that's the smell of money", as all the old-timers say, lol.
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Hahaha! As per usually, they are right. lol!
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: )
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@rebeccaryan
So sad. It would have been nice to watch for little turtles to crawl to the water.
That is why so many eggs are laid each year. To have a nest or two survive the egg robbers.
But, we know if every egg hatched, we would soon be dealing with turtles everywhere. Natural balance is what we need to continue to thrive.
Thank you for showing us this. To me it is sad, but I know that the turtles will not die out anytime soon.
Francis
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You are absolutely right Francis! I couldn't help but be a little sad, but then it was a good reminder about the circle of life on our planet and how Mother Nature maintains balance. :)
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If this weren't so well written, I would feel very sad for the turtles. Not the eggs as much as whoever laid these eggs. They probably had to hide when the raccoons came to eat their unborn. The turtles here are extremely timid. If I make a sound they jump into the pond (and risk being eaten by the alligator). Ah such is life. Wonderful post, as always!
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Thank you. It is completely the circle of life at its finest. I felt bad too until I really thought about what I was seeing and then I had a change of heart. These events keep the balance. :)
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Great post!
Thanks for sharing & steem on :)
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Thanks @jcsteem!
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Amazing find. I bet the raccoon never once complained about dirt in his food either.
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Gobbled every egg it could get its little paws on! At least nothing went to waste. :)
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Sounds like a hungry raccoon to me as well, good for the raccoon, bad for the eggs, such is life I suppose. Cheers
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Yes, we must always remember that Mother Nature knows how to take care of things and keep a balance. It is when we "think" we know better and mettle that we tend to screw things up royally.
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Isn't nature wonderful and tragic at the same time. I love getting out and exploring my surroundings and seeing what nature has up her sleeve.
We don't have racoons or turtles here in New Zealand, so interesting to see this. Thanks.
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You are most welcome @amexperts! Raccoons are one of the craftiest animals that we have because their paws have very usable digits. They can open containers of all sorts, doors and windows. They are notorious break and enter thieves and will break into a garden shed to steal bird-seed right out of sealed storage bins. :)
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Awww nooo! poor little turtles
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but I suppose that is the way of life
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Yes. I needed to remind myself of this. I have been busy helping the turtles but it is just as important for the survival of the ecosystem that a balance is maintained. :)
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