Snake Raid

[bobpbx]

Uh oh, somebody raided the nest:

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/forums...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

I think it was a coon or a fox. What I don't understand is why there were juvenile snake skins scattered around the nest too. I gathered all the eggs and skins for this shot:

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/forums...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

I'm thinking a pine snake nest.

About a mile away I found one of those environmental fences with snake boxes, about 24 in all. All were empty:

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/forums...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/forums...ery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

 

[Teegate]

Nice find! Looks like a good area to keep a watch on.

Guy

 

[Bobbleton]

its definatly not a racoon. maybe a fox, but i'd put money on either a dog or a human with a dog's assistance. i've seen many many raided nests . . . they're done with surgical precision.

if i had to theorize, i'd bet the nest was either hatched or raided by something else first. the eggs were yanked out by whatever excavated that huge hole, and molting was either the first thing the babies did after digging out (sometimes it takes a while and they're already dried up and ready to shed), or the skins were used as a tool of the dogowner to sniff down the already empty (but still very smelly) nest.

Independent of the nearby skins and boxes though . . . it was almost definatly a snake nest. not much question on that. the eggs are spherical and native turtles' eggs are pretty exclusively eliptical.

Awesome find, any way you slice it.

-Bob

 

[manumuskin]

Bob,
this is definitely a pine snake egg nest.those are pine snake eggs and skins.luckily it looks to have been raided after at least most of the hatching was done.
Al