Emily Chan
Millman ended up meeting McKenna-Foster, the director of the Maria Mitchell Association Natural Science Museum and spoke with him about his theory.
Mckenna-Foster took it upon himself to solve the mystery of the millipedes. During his studies, he noticed that a millipede had a bite wound on the back of its neck, a sign of a narrow escape from a predator.
Try as he might, he still couldn’t identify the decapitator. However, he suspected that a sparrow known as the eastern towhee was behind the beheadings.
These birds are often seen feeding along the sides of roads. They are omnivores and will devour both seeds and insects.
When Mckenna-Foster moved to Oregon, his friend Kardell took the reins on the project. One day, he spotted a black bird called a common grackle that was pecking at the ground in an odd manner.
He then saw that the bird was picking away at parts of a millipede still wriggling on the ground. It seemed like the common grackle was the one causing millipedes to lose their heads, but there weren’t very many of them on the island.
It’s possible that other creatures could be the real culprit, such as glowworm beetle larvae, jays, or shrews.
For now, the murder of the millipedes will remain a mystery until hard evidence finally presents itself.
