That’s a wrap! The summer of 2026 as a Turtle Team Leader has officially come to an end. This summer the box turtle team found a total of 74 live turtles and 7 shells, giving us an overall total of 81! While it is always a bit of a heartbreak to find a shell, [...]
Let's wander slowly through the fields Slowly slowly through the fields I touch the leaves that touch the sky Just WEL through fields of turtles With the summer coming to an end, it is sad to say that we just finished our last field experience for the year. We were able to revisit four [...]
This week, I got to help out with the Wildlife Disease Association conference in Chicago, IL. Hosted in a new city each year, WDA was hosted in Chicago this year with the help of Dr. Karen Terio, the WEL lab, Shedd Aquarium, Peggy Notebart Nature Museum, and more! Though the conference was from Monday through [...]
Hello all! Sorry about the brief hiatus, but we have been hard at work in Lake County. After the last few weeks of craziness with Blanding's Bowl and the Reinke lab, these two weeks have been relatively relaxed. I realized that we haven't really given a good idea of what we do in a typical [...]
When most people hear the phrase "baby turtle," they probably picture a hatchling small enough to fit in the palm of their hand. Around the Wildlife Epidemiology Laboratory, though, our "babies" are a little different. They may be over six years old now, but they'll probably always be [...]
One of my favorite experiences at the University of Illinois has been helping care for our prairie rattlesnakes. Because these snakes are venomous, every student who works with them completes specialized venomous snake handling training before ever interacting with them. This training focuses on proper handling techniques, safety protocols, and [...]
https://youtu.be/WTBsCkpdbcw?is=GmTo0DgMV_dKZ0dw
This week, we had some visitors from the Reinke Lab of Northeastern Illinois University! Led by Dr. Beth Reinke, the lab typically studies painted turtles at a field site in northern Wisconsin. This year though, one of the lab's students, Gail, has been with us in the field working on their project on Blanding's turtle [...]
Biosecurity isn’t the most glamorous aspect of veterinary medicine and research, but it is crucial to the industry and the work we do in the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab. It is a pillar of our standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the field, laboratory, or when handling our research animals. Establishing biosecurity protocols helps to protect individuals, [...]
Nothing I write in this blog will hold a candle to the saga penned by my Blanding's compatriot Sathvik last week. In an effort to creatively compare, this week's blog post will be written exclusively in the ancient art form of the haiku. -- When turtle tracking, Found a weird looking turtle. They call him Flat [...]
