Yesterday while setting some beaver traps I found 9 box turtle shells all together along the bank. A few were in the edge of the water and a few were on the bank. About half had been there a while as they had turned white. The rest looked more recent as they hadn't lost their color yet. I suspect that otters may have killed them as their is a little bit of otter scat along the beaver dam. I didn't know if otters would kill box turtles or not and I thought that it was interesting that the shells were all together. Anyone seen anything similar to this before.

Otters will definitely eat turtles. There are lots of videos of them doing it. Box turtle are harder to get into for predators, but one quick bite, when the head is out, would do the job for an otter.

Keith

A Turn of turtles?

Box turtles? I would think that was a lot all near water...I usually think of them as more terrestrial...Interesting...

Deposited there by a flood???

The flood would help explain floating them up out of their hibernaculums...

Not put there by a flood. This is in an old strip mine pit. There is a creek below the pit that is dammed up but there is no way that little creek could come up 20 feet or so.

The otter's - turtle shell trophy room.

To hang out with another otter when visiting and have a beer while discussing turtle hunts.......lol

It's a guy thing........

Ive seen some of the river high banks down here lined similarly here with mussel shells. Never seen it with any kind of turtles though

I saw that on one of those game warden reality shows. They said that it was birds. Birds found a good spot where turtles were crossing and would pick them off one by one.

Found quite a few turtle shells under an Eagle nest in a large white pine tree. The tree was on an island near the mouth of a river entering a lake. Lots of red granite rocks and boulders for the turtles to sun themselves on. I had never thought about Eagles preying on turtles, but it makes sense.

Turtles tend to hibernate in groups. I would guess that all these were hibernating in the same place and the otter or otters found them. Some types of turtles must hibernate in the mud (snappers for instance) or their survival rate is lower. Some turtles do just fine hibernating in water in streams (wood turtles an example). I do not know what box turtles prefer but I would assume these were not burrowed in the mud.
Randy were the shells chewed up? Otter would chew a hole right threw the shell to get at the contents.

Eric,

The shells were in pretty good shape. There were a couple that had a small piece missing but other than those, they were pretty much intact. I figure whatever killed them attacked the belly side of the turtles.

Never gave much thought to eagles or hawks.

I run across an occasional box turtle every now and then. I usually pick them up and look them over. If I see one on a road, if the road isn't a busy road, I will stop and pick them up and place them safely off the road. I have never really looked too closely at their underside to see if it could be easily penetrated.

Box turtles calm up completely when disturbed. It would be quite the feat to open one up without leaving a mark.