Just a cute headstart as compensation for the delayed blog! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a while but I've been up to some pretty amazing stuff while saving the world all at the same time. Three weeks ago, we discovered that there were 35 headstarts up in Lake County that needed [...]
Dear Beloved readers: This week has certainly been an interesting seven days in the field. With the low water levels and lack of rainfall, the turtles have decided to stay cozied up in the marsh making turtle catching even more difficult. However, on Tuesday, Maura and Alexis took on the DANGEROUS task of processing eight [...]
My derpy roadtrip buddy With no turtles to track or trap this week, the team and I were able to catch up on some things in the office. I finally stained all of the blood smears that I have made over the past month, and with 120+ slides this was quite a task. [...]
Welcome back to the Lake Co blog! We wanted to use this blog to shout out all of the amazing, hardworking people who help us help Blanding's! Last week the Lake County Blanding's team, Kane County Blanding's team, and the Box Turtle team all joined forces to sample 125 headstarted Blanding's turtles that were [...]
Hey all you happy herps and hatchlings! This week was a little different, with Alexis leaving Maura for three days for some teeny turtles, head-starts. Head-starting aims to help with Blanding’s turtle conservation by collecting eggs during nesting season, and then sending the hatchlings to a facility (Turtle Town) that will spend the next year [...]
A male painted turtle shows off his claws This week was all about Painted Turtles! John, the conservation biologist from last week, and I set up Promar traps in ponds to test for any uptake of lead in turtles caused by their use of the varied habitats surrounding the area. This information is [...]
This week I swapped my hiking boots for waders and set out to find spotted turtles in the swamps of Camp Edwards. This is the very first-time spotted turtles have been sampled in the Wildlife Epi Lab! John, a conservation biologist working under the Department of Defense Legacy Grant and graduate student at Antioch University, [...]
It's been awhile, what in the world have I been up to??? Keep reading and see! During my first week of the 2021 field season, I had the honor of joining Lauren in Cape Cod sampling box turtles! After a grueling 17 hour drive out there, the week definitely lived up to my expectations. [...]
This week Kayla and Carley did some solo work. While Kayla was collecting field samples, Carley was doing her Summer Research Training Program orientation week at the lab. Carley is participating in the University of Illinois S.R.T.P this summer which Kayla participated in last summer. During this program, students are matched with a mentor [...]
Hello readers! Alexis and Maura here to cover another week out in the field! This week we took on two different sites to find the beloved turtles! While there was an initial excitement of new sites, this week brought on many challenges including in-climate weather and getting our water legs back in action. Although new to the [...]
