Egg-laying spotted turtle, part 2

I want to follow-up on the nesting and egg laying last week. It takes her several hours to dig the nest, lay eggs, and cover up the nest. She has more stamina than me, so some of my work in documenting her activity took place over two days.

Digging nests is hard work and she has to make sure she gets it just right. The nest is excavated with the back legs, not the front legs! I filmed her digging for a couple of minutes, then I left her alone for a while.

When I came back to check her progress, she had already laid 2 eggs and I was just in time to see the 3rd egg drop. You can see in the video how she arranges the eggs in the nest with her back feet. She does everything by feel because she can’t see what’s happening behind her. I love her dedication to the task.

Isn’t she marvelous? I don’t remember her previous eggs over the last several years being as large as these. If they’re fertile, they should hatch in about 60 days. The final part of my documentation took place the next morning. Learn about that in my next post.