Hello and Welcome to the new season of Kane Co Turtles ft. our old friend Surina and the new and excited Carly.
A little about us:
Carly is from southern Illinois and an upcoming second year at the university of Illinois college of veterinary medicine. She received her undergraduate education at southern Illinois university Carbondale where she claimed a Bachelors in Animal Science as well as a minor in Chemistry and Art Education. Carly is hoping to pursue a One Health focus throughout her veterinary medicine journey and one day study the relationships because large animal production agriculture and wildlife conservation. Carly can’t wait to begin her project focusing on antimicrobial resistant genes in turtles across Kane county as well as keep learning about Blanding’s turtles! Oh, and she hopes to master the dreaded hemacytometer and avoid as many cattail injuries as possible.
Surina just finished her second year of veterinary medical school at the University of Illinois and is from the Chicagoland area. Before coming to UIUC, She received a BS in Biology and BA in Music at Benedictine University in Lisle, IL. She hopes to pursue a career in Zoological and Aquatic Medicine where she would be able to work animals around the world as well as institutionally. Surina is most excited to see all the different personalities of the different turtles she encounters and be able to conquer the marsh without falling along with figuring how to conduct her research project in eDNA transmission of known turtle pathogens.
Now back to what happened in the marshes…
The past 2 weeks have been crazy for the both of them. While Surina knew what to expect, it didn’t make her wheeze any less when trudging through the marshes. Carly, on the other hard, was a champ and acted like she’s been doing this for years. It was also a taste of what to expect for this summer.
We saw both old and new turtles which was super exciting. In Kane, we process Blanding’s, Painted, and Common Snapping turtles. We started the season off strong with processing 62 total turtles which is AWESOME!!! We also had special guests Dr. Kaitlin and Maddy help us out in the field as we were getting our footing before being let free in the marsh.
Some fun things that happened:
– Bill, our Kane Co field biologist, dunked his waders after bragging that he hasn’t dunked his waders in 13 years
– Carly rangled a huge snapper in the march and lived to tell the tail
– Surina managed to injure herself after just 1 week back in the field (don’t worry, she’s fine and back in waders)
– Carly navigated the dense cattails and didn’t see land for over an hour while telemetering a turtle
Stay tuned for more updates <3
