October 21st, 2013

Last June 7th, with Mrs. Gammie’s class from N.A. MacEachern P.S, we arrived at the pond to find the female snapping turtle laying eggs. We all gathered around her and watched in amazement at this part of the Eastern Snapping Turtles life cycle.

I took some video with my phone. It is a short clip, but when the female raises her leg, you can clearly see her deposit an egg into the hole she dug with her hind legs.

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By the time we were finished our study, she had begun burying the eggs for the 3-month incubation.

The morning after the eggs were deposited, I went down to check on the nest.  As is typical, there were 43 egg shells scattered around the ground – the work of a fox, raccoon, skunk, or most probable… Wild Turkeys.

My thought was that all the eggs were passed up the food chain in less than 24 hours…

Fast-forward to September 20th, when Mr Bishop’s class from Glencairn P.S. was with me at the pond and we saw this…  We witnessed a single baby emerging from the nest.

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This was only the seventh baby Snapping Turtle I had seen make it out of the nest in my 14 years of observing. What a treat to see the female lay the eggs with a class and then see a hatchling making it out of the nest with another class!!