Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

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Chris Smith
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Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Chris Smith »

Hey all,

While tracking hognose yesterday we found one of the tagged females and she had a large lump..... We held on to her for a while and when I decided to take another look at her she regurgitated this:

Image

It is a good sized full egg. We decided to cut it open and found this:

Image

A turtle...... Most likely a Blanding's turtle egg but I have yet to examine the specimen closely.


Cheers,
Chris
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Schell
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Schell »

WOW!! that is crazy. I've never seen a turtle embryo like that before? Do you still think it was viable when it coughed it up?
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Jon Wedow
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Jon Wedow »

Cool find!
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Chris Smith
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Chris Smith »

I doubt it was viable. In order for the embryo to develop it needs to "breath". Eggs exchange gases through the shell membranes. Also, it is likely that the egg had been turned/flipped during the feeding process likely causing the embryo to drown.

-Chris
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Nigel Smith
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Nigel Smith »

Has this been recorded in western hognose before?
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Chris Smith
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Chris Smith »

Nigel Smith wrote:Has this been recorded in western hognose before?
Egg eating yes. Turtle egg eating I am not sure yet. We will likely write something up for Herp Rev.

-Chris
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Chad M. Lane
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Chad M. Lane »

I find the open shell more interesting than the Hognose eating an egg, it's been well documented that they eat eggs including there own, I had a captive female eat most of her dud eggs.

When you take a look closer at the turtle eggs, I'd enjoy some more photos of it! Not something you see all to often.



Cheers,
Chad
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Steve Barten
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Steve Barten »

Very nice documentation. Wish I had had a better camera 30 years ago.

Barten, S.L. The consumption of turtle eggs by a western hognose snake, Heterodon nasicus : a field observation. Bull. Chi. Herp. Soc. 15(4): 97-8. 1980.

The snake we found regurgitated a pellet consisting of 12 empty, compressed turtle egg shells, the species of which could not be determined. At the time I found records of them eating ornate box turtle eggs and digging into Blanding’s turtle nests. Ernst and Ernst cite records of western hogs eating the eggs of four species of turtles.
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Chris Smith
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Chris Smith »

Thanks for the info Steve!

-Chris
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Fundad
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Fundad »

Cool that you get see and document that...

Nice Hoggy too..

Fundad
Crotalus
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Crotalus »

Really awesome!
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Erica Hoaglund
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Erica Hoaglund »

Here are some more photos of the turtle egg that was eaten and one more of snake with egg -

Image

Image

Image

Image

Pretty crazy stuff! thanks for looking

-Erica
Shane_TX
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Shane_TX »

Cool find. It's pretty well known that nasicus are serious turtle egg predators, but I'd certainly like to observe the behavior.

Shane
hellihooks
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by hellihooks »

cool post! i have a pair of hogs...same size... one tried to eat the other, so mow I keep them apart... :roll: jim
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Mike VanValen
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Mike VanValen »

Very cool. I had no idea they consumed eggs. Are there any records of platirhinos consuming eggs?
matt ignoffo
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by matt ignoffo »

That is cool to see. They are well documented to consume the eggs of Illinois mud turtles.
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Nick
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Nick »

Very cool observation. I have never heard of this in hognose snakes before.

An idea for next time: Turtle eggs have been successfully incubated and hatched after being regurgitated by Florida kingsnakes. :thumb:
mikemike
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by mikemike »

Wow. Awesome observation. I didn't know either that hoggies fed on turtle eggs. I knew they'd eat snake, lizard, and bird eggs though, so it definitely makes sense...

thanks for sharing!
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Jason_Hood
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Jason_Hood »

Seems they really like eggs, pretty darn funny vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF5xt_V4Ge4

Jason
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Carl Koch
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Carl Koch »

Excellent stuff, Chris! Great photos and documentation. I, too, am fascinated by the turtle photos. This is the kind of stuff that makes FHF so darned exciting and addicting!
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Carl Koch
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Carl Koch »

Oh, and Jason, that vid is HILARIOUS!
gulo
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by gulo »

Western hogs also eat other snakes.
DIAMONDBACK DAVE
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by DIAMONDBACK DAVE »

Hey Chris/ Erica, the hognose snake in the photo with the egg does not look to good, whats up with it?

DBD
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Erica Hoaglund
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Erica Hoaglund »

DIAMONDBACK DAVE wrote:Hey Chris/ Erica, the hognose snake in the photo with the egg does not look to good, whats up with it?

DBD
Hey DBD,

The snake was quite healthy and was released safely minutes after the photos were taken, she was tracked for the remainder of the season on behaved normally and appeared healthy at every subsequent observation.

-Erica
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-EJ
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by -EJ »

It is documented in History of the Hognose Snakes... by D.R.Platt... still a very cool natural observation.
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Bill Love
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Re: Wild western hognose diet.... surprise!

Post by Bill Love »

Cool observation, and even cooler that you documented it with photos.
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