New York City’s JFK airport has had to close one of their runways because of turtle presence on the runway.
The runway becomes a turtle crossing every year around this time as the terrapins gear up to reproduce.
“They look for sandy spots to lay their eggs,” Mr. Kelly said, “and there is an ideal location on the other side of Runway 4L. They come out of the water and cross the runway to lay their eggs in the sand.”
via Turtles Force Runway Closing at J.F.K. Airport – NYTimes.com.
Usually the impact of human development obscures animal use of such land. In this case, we have a clear visibility of the couple of million years where turtles strolled the same path to drop their eggs. A couple of decades ago, humans built an airport blocking turtle-egg-dropping zone. Visibility in that moment where Mr. Kelly notes that the spot on the other side of runway 4L is “ideal.”
Life of refinement 