The Painted Turtle Mystery:
Hi.
This is Leo. The other day when we were hiking we found a half-eaten painted turtle.
This is when we found it on the ground.
And this is what it looked like on the other side. The shell was cut in half and the back legs were still there, but the shell was empty and we couldn’t find the other half anywhere.
It was really cool and I wanted to save it for a treasure but my parents said it would get smelly so we threw it over our fence after a while.
Our theories about what ate it are:
1. A heron (we were in a marsh where there were a lot of heron nests)
2. A raccoon (we live in NH and there are a lot of raccoons)
3. A fox (there are a lot of foxes here)
We really want to know what happened to this turtle. What are YOUR theories? Please share them here!!
Thanks for reading!
Leo
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Hi Leo!
I live in New Hampshire too. I’m guessing it was a hungry racoon. 🙂
Good theory!
Gabriel’s theory is that a racoon cracked the shell and then ate the contents. I wonder if it could have been hit by a vehicle first and then scavenged by a predator….
Excellent theories, Gabriel!
Hi, Leo! I have a 7 year old son, too! He read this and wanted to know if you wrote everything and took the pictures by yourself.
As for the painted turtle you found, we guess a fox or raccoon (or perhaps an otter) might have eaten the front half.
Hi Daria,
I’m responding for him tonight because he’s under the weather but he usually types some if not all of his posts. He needs help with links and photos but he chooses the photos. Also, if he gets tired he dictates to me. 🙂
My first thought is a raccoon. That’s what got our rabbit, I think!
Good theory!!
Could it have been a dog? We live in New Zealand and our typical wild predators are possums, stoats, rats (and domestic cats and dogs)! Probably not many of them in New Hampshire!!
Hi Jo!
So a friend has a friend at NH Fish & Game and HIS theory is that it was a motor. Thing is, there shouldn’t have been ANY motors at this place where we were. It’s well off the beaten path and it’s clearly marked NOT to, but someone must have been fishing with a motor and then a scavenger found it and ate it for dinner. So sad, poor guy!!
Hope you get our letter!! 🙂
I’d say raccoon, because they have been seen using tools, and you’d need a rock to get into the shell.
Excellent theory, Ticia!
My 9 year old, Mike thinks maybe a giant bear or a bird dropped a rock on him. Good luck with your investigation!
He loves this idea!
Hi Leo! I am so glad that you get excited about exploring nature and nature mysteries like this! I grew up in NH and now I live in MA. I still love to explore nature! Once I took a class with author and artist David Carroll. He studies turtles and paints turtles and lives in NH too! I learned in this class that sometimes in the winter Otters eat parts of turtles and leave the rest. I wonder if there are otters nearby?
I really like your raccoon hypothesis. Keep exploring! 🙂