Our final week of turtle team began at 4:00am when Marta and I met at the lab to pack all of our supplies and equipment into a SUV. Just as the sun began to rise at 5am, we were off and headed to Tennessee. With only a couple of quick food and rest stops, we [...]
After our week of trudging through marshes in heavy wadders, we made our way back to land to finish off our last turtle team week in Vermilion County. While this week was slower than our previous ones, we still managed to find 27 turtles in 4 days! The highs of the week were finding a [...]
Our next adventure took us to the North side of Chicago in Lake County were we met up with our Blanding's Team, John and Lauren, to help out for the week and do a little team bonding. We worked with the Blanding's Turtle, an endangered aquatic turtle species, that looks like it's always smiling because [...]
Marta teaching students how to perform venipuncture from the subcarapacial sinus This week we traveled to Stephen A. Forbes State Park with a group of 19 students in search of eastern box turtles. We started the week off by driving 2 hours to the field site with a caravan of 7 cars. [...]
The first week of Turtle Team is in the books! And I guess this blog... Our first week was very close to home in Vermilion County at four different sites within the Forest Preserve. We brought with us: John and his turtle dogs Paulo, a visiting veterinarian from Peru 20 veterinary medicine students The week [...]
John Cooling Two of the Dogs off With Water A crucial part of turtle team are the turtle dogs and their owner, John Rucker. One of the turtle dogs cooling off in the creek We use a highly trained canine search team of Boykin Spaniels to find the turtles and safely [...]
After a three and a half hour drive with a two car caravan packed with basically the entire lab of equipment and people we arrived at Nachusa Grasslands to this beautiful sight! Here was the crew for the week: From W.E.L.: Dr. Allender, Dr. Laura, Samantha, Kelsey, Marta From the Illinois Natural [...]
Hi, my name is Samantha Johnson! I am finishing up my second year of veterinary school and am one of the coordinators for Turtle Team 2017. My interests in veterinary medicine include zoological, wildlife, and conservation medicine. Turtle Team 2016 One of the most fulfilling experiences was having the opportunity to participate in Turtle [...]
