I lived in NJ near the coast. Let me tell you, you know how pigeons are in major cities? Well, it's almost as if fox are reaching those densities on the urbanized coast. I used to go surf fishing a few days a week. Forget about gulls, the major bait-nabbers were fox. They would literally walk within a foot of you to steal your chop.

As far as diamondbacks and fox, I have a confession to make. I used to drive up and down a strip of road that was flanked on one side by the ocean and another by the bay. (this superspot will not be named). During a certain part of the year, female diamondbacks would cross this road en-masse to lay eggs. I would help them across, and was also able to remove literally hundreds of viable eggs from road fatalities. The key seemed to be getting to the carcasses before the sun would bake them...about 8am. Aside from the sun, my biggest competitor were fox. I would see hundreds on about an 8 mile stretch of road. It was literally a "predator buffet". I say this is a confession because I would incubate the eggs at home and release the newborns in reedy outcoves of the bay. As diamondbacks are protected in NJ, I called to try to get a permit for these activities. I was told, and I am remembering from over 8 years ago so this may not be exact, "We don't give permits for people to save turtles. We give permits for scientific and research purposes only. Death is a natural thing. You should just leave the eggs there." Well, bugger me, I didn't learn in ecology that fishermans's 4*4 trucks smashing turtles are natural occurrences. NJ has one of the richest diversities of chelonians that I've ever seen, but I wish they would change some of their policies. Who knows, maybe they have since then. Thanks for the article.

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• NJ Press: Predator buffet - W von Papineäu, Fri Dec 2 21:41:10 2005
• RE: NJ Press: Predator buffet - kensopher, Fri Dec 9 15:40:15 2005