It's been awhile, what in the world have I been up to??? Keep reading and see! During my first week of the 2021 field season, I had the honor of joining Lauren in Cape Cod sampling box turtles! After a grueling 17 hour drive out there, the week definitely lived up to my expectations. [...]
Hello! Welcome to the 2021 Turtle Team blog! If you're new here, my name is Kelcie Fredrickson and I am a rising third year veterinary student and the 2021 Turtle Team leader. This summer, like every summer, we are doing population based health assessments in Eastern and Ornate box turtles throughout Illinois and Tennessee. Turtle [...]
Katy is introducing our recaptured turtle Rose to trees. During the final week of turtle team's field season, we were joined by a few familiar faces! Fourth years Ivana, Brina and Katy joined us while fulfilling their professional development requirement for clinics. This week, we visited the same sites as we did in [...]
When we don't get to sample cute turtles, we get to catch up on things around the lab! During field weeks, we collect samples such as cloacal-oral swabs, blood and shell swabs which need to be extracted. These samples are used to test for pathogens and diseases that may affect these turtles. You may [...]
This week I had the honor of finding and sampling Blandings turtles in Illinois! I got bust out the waders from the storage closet and yes, they did in fact have water in them...STILL. After a three hour drive and coffee break later, it was time to check the traps! While the traps that [...]
Greetings from Nature Lane! I arrived safely in Oak Ridge, TN with all of my gear on the evening of June 1. Packing my personal supplies took about one day, as did packing the bulk of my lab items, but somehow it seems as though I’ve forgotten a few things! During my time here, I’m [...]
