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 [...]
Our tackle boxes Contains Small and large plasma tubes Extra 2ml eppendorf tubes Extra Lithium heparin (anticoagulant) tubes A handful of syringes A scale Each of us has a scale type: 1 large hanging scale used to weigh our big turtles (>5kg) (softshells & snappers) 1 small tabletop scale Extra syringes already prepped with needles [...]
What a week! We’ve examined many turtle friends, and the summer is really taking off. This past week Marg and I were back together on my favorite field site. It was such a delight seeing the various ponds and all the prairie plants blooming and growing. Outside of turtles, I also loved stumbling upon frogs, [...]
The majority of field sites we go to have either Eastern box turtles or Ornate box turtles. However, we went to a site last week that had both. Here is how you differentiate between the two species: Eastern box turtles Ornate box turtles Scientific Name Terrapene carolina carolina Terrapene ornata ornata Native Range (Todd, [...]
An essential part of our health assessment of each individual turtle is performing a physical exam! Physical exams can give us a lot of information, so they are therefore very important. While performing a physical exam, it is important that you maintain the same process each time, so that you do not miss anything. It [...]
Working dogs play an important role in many aspects of our society. The canine intelligence, trainability, and sense of smell is unmatched, which makes working dogs great assets to their human counterparts. In your daily life, you may see service dogs or police dogs, but have you ever heard of a turtle dog? In the [...]
Our first week in the field was scheduled at Ayers Sand Prairie State Nature Preserve and the Nachusa Grasslands in northwestern IL. This coming week, Maddie and I will be going back to these sites to recapture some telemetry turtles that we will be following over the entire active season this year, until they go [...]
This week, we want to introduce you to “The Turtle Dog Man,” Mr. John Rucker! John is from North Carolina and before training a famous team of turtle dogs, he was a high school English teacher. However, when visiting his family’s North Carolina home, his dogs started bringing him turtles on his land and he [...]
Monday: Today we set the stage for the whole week! Paul and Paige lead the way to set up our turtle traps. They both have a keen eye for identifying the best location and selecting the best bait to catch our shelly friends! After all the traps are set up we head back to the [...]
Howdy, everyone! Last week we told you a little bit about us. This week, we want to introduce you to our biggest helpers in the field, the turtle dogs! They are Boykin Spaniels who are owned and trained by Mr. John Rucker. They go into the field with us for every Ornate and Eastern Box [...]
