Kingsnake Predation on Turtle Eggs 3 



aging 3.2 eggs/ clutch. If the snake located and devoured "average" 

 clutches of K. subrubrum, then at least five or six different nests had 

 been preyed upon, all within a fairly short period. If the same scenario 

 is applied to "average" clutches of S. odoratus, the snake may have 

 preyed on five to nine nests. Given the circumstances of its capture, it 

 seems highly probable that the snake would have taken the contents of 

 the T. Carolina nest as well. Interestingly, the three intact eggs that 

 passed through the digestive system of the snake and were then defe- 

 cated were incubated in the lab and hatched after approximately 50 

 days, yielding three S. odoratus. 



Imler (1945) mentioned a bullsnake, Pituophis melanoleucus sayi, 

 with an "egg appetite to the extent that it will not eat anything else," 

 and Legler (1960), citing a conversation with the late E. H. Taylor, men- 

 tioned a bullsnake that "swallowed an entire clutch of newly laid eggs [of 

 Terrapene ornata] before the female turtle could cover the nest." Per- 

 haps some individual L. getulus behave the same way in nature. Legler 

 (1960) stated that nest predation may have a greater effect on popula- 

 tions than predation on hatchlings, juveniles, and adults. Our data sug- 

 gest that L. getulus, particularly those in areas of extensive turtle nest- 

 ing, as along the margin of the Savannah River Swamp, might contribute 

 more than slightly to turtle egg predation totals. Any future studies of 

 predation on turtle eggs should take this predator into account. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.— Thanks go to R. A. Seigel, J. Iverson, 

 and S. Novak for commenting on earlier drafts of this paper; R. A. 

 Estes for field assistance; S. J. Morreale for incubating and hatching the 

 S. odoratus eggs; and J. W. Gibbons for the opportunity to collect and 

 report these observations. Manuscript preparation was supported by 

 contract DE-AC09-76SR00819 between the U.S. Department of Energy 

 and the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. 



LITERATURE CITED 

 Brown, E. E. 1979. Some snake food records from the Carolinas. Brimleyana 



1:113-124. 

 Ernst, Carl H., and R. W. Barbour. 1972. Turtles of the United States. Univ. 



Kentucky Press, Lexington. 

 Gibbons, J. Whitfield. 1983. Reproductive characteristics and ecology of the 



mud turtle, Kinosternon subrubrum (Lacepede). Herpetologica 39(3): 



254-271. 

 , and K. K. Patterson. 1978. The reptiles and amphibians of the 



Savannah River Plant. National Environmental Research Park 2:1-24. 



