A few weeks back, I posted an item about a Snapping Turtle with blue paint on her shell who had laid her eggs in my side yard.
  Judging from the collective carnage in the yard, I would have to say that once again it was a maternity ward for Snapping Turtles, and once again a predator or two used it as their pantry.
   There must be a hundred pillaged turtle eggs scattered across the mulch.
    By now, it seems clear that the turtles' reproductive strategy is to lay as many eggs as possible, and hope that the raccoons and other predators miss a few.
   By now, given the number of Snapping Turtles in Lake Appert and environs, the strategy seems to work.

   Other "Reptiles and Amphibians" posts here.