Reptile & Amphibian Forums

today i found an amazing seen. there was a nest of baby ducks that had all hatched except for one egg the egg finally hatched this morning. i saw the baby duck in the nest at 6:30 when i went to check it at 10:00 i saw a box turtle walk in to the nest grab the baby duck and start eatting its head. i was amazed at seeing this and ran to get a camera. when i got back in about 2 minutes at most the box turtle had eatten the ducks head and was pulling out the insides. i have never herd of this nore have i seen it. i will show the pictures of this in a day or two.

CrazyCody

Box turtles are opportunistic omnivores, and you found out what that can mean. We have alot of birds visit our turtle enclosure for the water source and worms: I wouldn't be surprised if something similar occurred here one of these days.
Stephanie

* Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Well, our box turtle would not do such a thing! Hes a really nice guy. I know survival of the fittest and all but I don't want to think the friendly turtle that ate peaches, carrots and grapes this morning would do such a thing. : )

hahaha..anthropormophizing there a bit, aren't we? =)

I always find it cool when some animal you normally don't think of eating something or attacking something, actually does. I didn't know Chimpanzees killed other monkeys and ate their heads, brains, intestines, etc....when I was a kid, I dind't know Shamu and his brothers ripped apart Flipper & Co. when they are in the wild.

And yes, any turtle that is an omnivore..no matter how "well acclimated to captivity'" has the potential to kill when offered the chance/need to survive. It is not unheard of that when a dog or cat's owner dies and the animal is around, sometimes the first thing they go for are the eyes and lips...cuz they're the most succulent.

=)

I have blue jays every where and one day there was one rinsing in one of my my box turtle ponds and one of my box turtles that was already in the water came behind it and grabbed it on the back of the neck and puled it in the water.
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Justin