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For years, I've been finding headless newts and have assumed that it was otters eating them. This day, I found a bunch of freshly dismembered newts, so fresh that their headless bodies were still wriggling when touched.

This time, the otter was pretty conclusively the culprit, but why just eat the heads and why the dismemberment? Tails and feet were chewed off, but the only parts that seem to have been eaten were the heads. (More info in alt text.)

The newts' orange coloring is a form of aposematism, i.e. a warning mechanism that says "hey, I'm really nasty to eat so don't bother!" They are poisonous to most predators.

But are the heads less poisonous? Are they not poisonous to otters? And if they're not going to eat them, why chop the newts' bodies up so badly. Are they maybe like house cats that just like to hunt for "sport" and play with their prey to death?

Any #WildlifeBiologist or #herpetologist have any thoughts?

#herpetology #newt #otter