If you don't keep up with infectious diseases affecting reptiles, then you may not be familiar with Snake Fungal Disease (SFD). SFD is attributed to the fungal pathogen Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, and is known for causing a nasty dermatitis in many snake species. Maybe you haven't heard of SFD, but you've heard of white-nose syndrome in bats? White-nose syndrome had a [...]
The first week of Blanding’s turtle work has been fun, hard, hot, cold, wet, and awesome. We have had a great time getting to know the wildlife biologists and techs we will be working with throughout the summer, and getting settled into our new roles as part of this collaborative team. Every day has been [...]
Our lab, W.E.L., is involved in many projects that play a part in conserving our ecosystem. W.E.L. focuses on reptiles and amphibians. We filled this role because there is a decline in reptile and amphibian wild populations. The goal then is to determine [...]
This week of Turtle Team was the last one of the summer! If that weren't troubling enough... it was that last week of Turtle Team that I would ever be able to help coordinate! I may become sentimental. The Wildlife Epidemiology Lab and the people that I get to work with have done wonders for me [...]
Noteworthy happenings: -July 12: Assisted Lynn Faust, a fellow field researcher, in collecting Twilight Bush Baby (P. australis) fireflies from the arboretum. To catch this particular species, we looked for the fireflies glowing yellow-orange vs. commonly seen green tinting. This was a nice relaxing pace compared to frog catching. -July 13-17: My nature-adoring parents came [...]
This was our second time, ever, searching at Stephen A. Forbes State Recreation Area in southern Illinois. This search site was so far away from the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab that we had to stay overnight near the site. This means that we got to camp after searching for Eastern Box Turtles and after labwork was [...]
May 19th 2016 Forest Glen Preserve is my absolute favorite site to search for turtles in Vermilion County!! What makes this endeavor even more spectacular is that we had guests from the Box Turtle Conservation Workshop hike with us to search for eastern box turtles. The Box Turtle Conservation Workshop was held the [...]
Believe it or not, I actually don't spend all of my time catching frogs or hiking in the Smokies (ha ha, I swear!). Instead, I center much of my free time on assisting other CRESO projects. So here is a much-deserved shout out to them! Bird Boxes Rectangular wooden bird boxes are hung upon trees [...]
One of the best things about my work this Summer has been getting to know all of the diverse creatures in my own backyard. The field site in DuPage is very close to my hometown - my family and I used to ride our bikes right past a marsh that has lots of Blanding’s and [...]
Erin explains how she takes samples on the Blanding's turtles she finds:
