Expect the Unexpected

As much as you think you know what each day will be like, the marsh is quite an unpredictable place. Between cattails trying to take out your eyeballs and brownie batter trying to eat your boots, you definitely find your inner strength in this line of work. Along with working with our seasonal worker Oscar, [...]

Expect the Unexpected2024-07-01T22:02:57-05:00

Turtles Galore Only 3 Weeks In

Surina and Carly have been battling the marsh day after day for a great reward: almost 100 turtles processed this season so far! After just four weeks, Surina and Carly have sampled 48 Blandings turtles, 24 Painteds, and 24 snipper snaps. In this time, Carly has almost mastered the dreaded snapping turtle tail draw while [...]

Turtles Galore Only 3 Weeks In2024-07-01T22:01:34-05:00

Week 7: Photo dump!

It's photo dump week! For this week's post, I decided to comb through my photo album of wayyy too many field pictures and share some of my favorites. This week, we were trapping and caught Blanding’s, painted, and snapping turtles.   I loved seeing this juvenile snapper in a trap. As part of our physical [...]

Week 7: Photo dump!2024-07-07T14:57:36-05:00

Find Your Perfect Shellmate

Welcome to Find Your Perfect Shellmate, the newest way to find your match online! Be sure to browse through the 14 eligible bachelors and bachelorettes we are featuring today! Who knows? Keep an open mind and maybe you’ll find your soulmate down below!     Please share with the lonely turtles in your life! We [...]

Find Your Perfect Shellmate2024-06-28T13:44:52-05:00

Turtle Doulas At Your Service

Every year, turtles go through a process called nesting season. This is when they come to land to nest, aka dig their holes and lay their eggs, and then go back to the water to live their lives. While this is a very natural event, sometimes they go to more unnatural places. Even though we [...]

Turtle Doulas At Your Service2024-06-26T20:51:16-05:00

Turtles of The Arboretum

  Hey, everyone! This week we wanted to talk about some turtles that are right across the veterinary medicine campus at The Arboretum! This summer, we have been helping an international graduate student on her Master’s project. She’s been trapping turtles in the pond and we’ve been going out to help her work them up, [...]

Turtles of The Arboretum2024-06-25T10:12:13-05:00

Cook county x Bikini Bottom

We are proud to present to you the collaboration of the generation as we compare our shelly sidekicks to SpongeBob's notorious crew! Blanding's Turtles are the main character of the show aka SpongeBob. Not only do most of the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab’s projects surround the health of blanding's turtles, they also have bright [...]

Cook county x Bikini Bottom2024-06-22T19:38:11-05:00

Week 6: Lovable turtles and clever raccoons

This week Lake County had some quieter days trapping turtles on our field sites. However, we caught some of the most lovable turtles in our traps. Check out this juvenile Common snapping turtle and the Painted turtle twins.                                     [...]

Week 6: Lovable turtles and clever raccoons2024-06-24T22:14:50-05:00

Week 5: Warmer… Colder…

We were excited to have some friends visit us this week! Maddy, the Walder Turtle vet student, joined us in Lake County to help us trap and track. We have ten telemetered turtles at one of our sites, and we sample them each once a month. This helps us see how their bloodwork changes over [...]

Week 5: Warmer… Colder…2024-06-24T22:21:28-05:00

Tune in to the Trials, Triumphs, and Tribulations of Telemetry Turtle Tracking

Welcome back! Today we wanted to talk about how we use radio telemetry to track ornate box turtles, as this year we have been and will continue to track 50 turtles over the active season! When we head into the field for the first time during the field season, we bring the turtle dogs with [...]

Tune in to the Trials, Triumphs, and Tribulations of Telemetry Turtle Tracking2024-06-14T12:39:46-05:00
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