06/21/2025
That's a wrap for DuPage County Forest!
Mela has completed her first 30 day contract of sniffing out endangered turtles.
She found 9/9 Blanding's turtles during trials. Then onto the field. Funny story, the weather never got hot enough for the bulk of the turtles to leave the swamp to go nest, so Mela and 2 experienced K9 Conservation Detection dog teams (from WI) found zero turtles in 14 days. A couple humans found a handful on land but the Ecologists pulled the bulk directly out of the swamp from telemetry readers.
Blanding's turtles are endangered and highly preyed upon by raccoons, et al. The Head Start Program takes female turtles, induces them with pitocin, collects the eggs, hatches them in incubators, and raises them for 2 years in captivity between zoos, aquariums, and universities. At 2 years, the turtles are released into the wild where they are then rarely predated upon. The program is still following turtles from 1996.
Mela has been invited to assist Lake County who has not begun nesting season yet!
At this point in time, Mela and I are the only team in IL training for K9 Conservation Detection of any taxa 🎉
