Twelve Years Later: Reassessing Visual and Olfactory Cues Raccoons Use to Find Diamondback Terrapin Nests

Abstract

Abstract As is true for many North American turtles, nest predation by Raccoons (Procyon lotor) is the primary cause of mortality of Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) eggs laid at Jamaica Bay, New York, USA. Previous research using artificial nests at this site indicated that Raccoons located nests based on soil disturbance and ocean water scent, were repelled by human scent, and that vinyl marking flags did not increase predation rates. To test whether more than a decade of subsequent field work at the same site resulted in a change in Raccoon behavior, we replicated the previous 9 artificial nest experiments and added 4 new designs, for 13 total treatments. Our experiments further tested the effects of seven potential cues used for locating nests: moisture, human scent, Diamondback Terrapin scent, ocean water scent, fresh water scent, soil disturbance, and flag markers. Our results corroborate previous research that flag markers are not important cues for Raccoons to locate terrapin nests. Cont...