SeaTurtleConservancyBocas

Nature can be difficult to watch. As humans we like to see the underdog win. We want to help and save the cute animals because they pull at our heart strings. The hardest lesson I’ve learned from wildlife photography is to not interfere in a natural food cycle. Both animals deserve a chance. The hunter and the prey. When I first noticed this gull flying around, I had no idea it had a hatchling sea turtle in its mouth. As I watched through my lens, I started to understand what was happening and as painful as it was to know the turtle was food, the bird deserves a chance to eat too. At one point the bird’s evasive maneuvers lost me and I thought for sure that it dropped the turtle. I even ran to the spot to see and perhaps stand guard over the turtle, at least giving it a chance to get back to the ocean but I couldn’t find the turtle and after reviewing the footage, I know why. The gull ultimately swallowed the turtle whole. I’m still not sure how it managed to do this but it did.