{"id":3009,"date":"2018-06-12T18:12:16","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T23:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/?p=3009"},"modified":"2018-06-12T19:29:22","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T00:29:22","slug":"week-1-welcome-to-turtle-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/week-1-welcome-to-turtle-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 1: Welcome to Turtle Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Welcome to our Blanding\u2019s blog, where we are excited to share our summer turtle adventures with you! The school year just ended, the field season has officially started and we are more than thrilled to get our feet wet (literally and figuratively). As a part of Dr. Matt Allender\u2019s Wildlife Epidemiology Lab, we as veterinary students are gearing up alongside a team of biologists from Lake County Forest Preserve District to help protect and conserve our state-endangered friend, the Blanding\u2019s turtle. Our next few months will be spent tracking, trapping and \u201chand-capping\u201d (those we incidentally come across in our path) Blandi<\/span>ng\u2019s turtles in the wetlands of Lake County to collect samples for population health and disease analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Lake County Forest Preserve District has long been acting, for at least a decade, to improve conservation efforts for Blanding\u2019s. The goal of their recovery program is \u201cto ensure long-term Blanding\u2019s turtle persistence in Lake County through the management, conservation and\/or re-establishment of viable, free-ranging populations of Blanding\u2019s turtles at a minimum of three focal conservation areas.\u201d They have worked hard to monitor home range and nesting sites, enforce predator control, and initiate a head-starting program to take steps towards sustaining a population. Because of their dedication to saving a species, further decline in population sizes have been prevented. As a key piece to every successful population, we as vet med students are working to assess a vital component — general health. Understanding population health will positively contribute to conservation efforts for this species.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meet the Team<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lauren Mumm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hello, it\u2019s me again! I couldn’t resist another summer of fieldwork and am excited to be back with the Blanding\u2019s tu<\/span>rtles. This time I am coming in with a second year of ve<\/span>terinary school under my belt. As a Minnesota-native where Blanding\u2019s turtles are not endangered, it is a bit disheartening to know that in other parts of their geographic range, populations are not as sustainable. Last summer my project in general focused on Blanding\u2019s turtle health and hematology. I am continuing this project by collecting a second season worth of data, as well as adding a component evaluating blood parasites.<\/span><\/p>\n

My first week back in the field has been amazing; I was itching to get out of the classroom the last few weeks. Embarrassingly enough, I did \u201cdump my waders\u201d day one. I took a little tumble in the marshes allowing water to swarm over and into my chest high waders, completely soaking myself. Usually you are excused for doing such a thing on the first day but I was told as a veteran I had no excuse. The punishment? I had to bring donuts for everyone. It is clear walking in waders has not come back to me so quickly. On the plus side, I got my first hand-cap for the season already! He was a head-start born in 2015 named Gator, and this was the first time he had been seen in the wild since his release in 2016. This little turtle was from the LCFPD Adopt-A-Turtle program, and the individual who \u201cadopted\u201d him will now receive updated info and photos of him. Adopting a turtle allows the public to get involved and stay updated on Blanding\u2019s conservation. Last year, I gifted my grandmother an adopted turtle for her birthday, whom she named Lady Liberty.<\/span><\/p>\n

My goals this summer are to utilize the tools I gained from the second-year classroom, contribute to the conservation of a native endangered species, share with you what I learn every week, and of course try my best to find that very special, Lady Liberty.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Kirsten Andersson<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hello! My name is Kirsten Andersson, and I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Go\u00a0Steelers!). I recently graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. in Animal Sciences. I have always had an interest in exotic animal species, but that passion only grew stronger with my internships at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium and at the National Aviary. I am thrilled to have an opportunity to work with Blanding\u2019s turtles in the field while developing my clinical and laboratory skills. My project centers on trying to learn more about the diseases that could be contributing to the decline in the Blanding\u2019s populations in Illinois.<\/span><\/p>\n

Week one has been full of incredible learning experiences and some super soggy feet. I promise you, walking in waders in three feet of water is much more difficult than it looks. My favorite thing I learned this week is that the best way to keep a Blanding\u2019s from pulling their head back into their shell is by holding their hand! I have also become very used to turtles peeing on me, and I only spent three days in the field. I am proud to say that I only fell one time in my waders, but I am not proud to say that it was on land, not even in the water\u2026 In all seriousness, though, I cannot wait to see what this summer brings. All of the biologists who work at the Lake County Forest Preserve are extremely passionate, knowledgeable and caring. Lauren has been an incredible mentor, showing me all the ropes in the field and in the lab.<\/span><\/p>\n

My number one goal this summer is to learn more about what diseases are affecting the Blanding\u2019s population and to see if there is a certain demographic they are impacting. I am also looking forward to applying some of the skills I learned in my elective course this year, Reptile Medicine and Surgery. This is going to be a great summer!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow Us Forward<\/strong>\"\"<\/b><\/p>\n

We are excited to share our journey\u00a0with you as we attempt t<\/span>o\u00a0perfect the\u00a0skills of walking\u00a0in waders, tracking and trapping, and doing all things possible to save a species. Want to\u00a0contribute to conservation efforts yourself? It\u2019s easy. You can do things like keeping your cats indoors, conserve water and reduce and recycle whenever possible, prevent the spread of invasive species, and simply break for turtles when you are driving on the roads! Find out more ways you can help, from LCFPD Blanding\u2019s\u00a0Turtle Recovery Program as well as learn about the Adopt-a-Turtle Program with the following link (shameless plug): https:\/\/www.lcfpd.org\/conservation\/blandings-turtle-recovery-program\/<\/a>
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 <\/p>\n

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Our Camera Roll:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Total Turtle Tally:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

33\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

An ongoing tally of the total amount of turtles we have sampled<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to our Blanding\u2019s blog, where we are excited to share our summer turtle adventures with you! The school year just ended, the field season has officially started and we are more than thrilled to get our feet wet (literally and figuratively). As a part of Dr. Matt Allender\u2019s Wildlife Epidemiology Lab, we as veterinary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3089,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions\/3089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}