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| Because Sandy Hook is a peninsula and is occasionally isolated by storms and becomes an island, land animals have trouble occupying it. It also does not have all of the plant and habitat resources of the mainland and this limits what creatures can thrive there. Raccoons and rabbits are adaptable and common. Coney Island across the bay in New York is a barrier island and gets its name from the old English word for rabbits. Groundhogs and foxes are also found on Sandy Hook but usually not in great numbers. |
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| Water turtles like the diamondback terrapins are still fairly common at Sandy Hook and lay their eggs in the sand dunes. They have no problem swimming to Sandy Hook since they are inhabitants of the bay. Other creatures are not so lucky. Skeletons are regularly found in the marsh and on the beach. Often times these are creatures like the squirrel and deer pictured above (Right) that drowned upriver and washed down to the bay. | |