I am in denial that I only have two more weeks in beautiful Cape Cod. This summer has flown by and I
don’t want it to end…OK I won’t get too emotional now because we still have a lot of turtles to track! Nicole, my roomie and turtle-tracking sidekick, is a pro at using radiotelemetry and the star of my video this week. The number of turtles we can sample in one day depends on several things: location, distance between turtles, weather, transmitter issues, etc. On an average day we typically get four turtles, but sometimes the stars align, and we can get up to eight!
My final couple of weeks here will be spent getting the third round of samples for the turtles we tracked during my first week in Cape Cod. Nicole can identify any of these turtles with just a carapace photo, give you a general area of where they are located, and give you a synopsis of their health history over the past year. Impressed? Same. It’s hard to believe we were able to incidentally find 20 new box turtles since May, but the original group definitely holds a special place in our hearts. 
We start tracking at the last location where the turtle was found and go from there. With one month between samples, some of these turtles can get pretty far! For these speedy guys, we will drive around in a John Deere Gator with the antenna out to minimize the distance we need to hike before setting off on foot into the woods. Don’t be too jealous, but my time here has basically been an extreme game of hide-and-seek except I’m “it” every round and the turtles get 4+ weeks to find the perfect hiding spot. 😊
Total Turtle Count = 140
