INHS PACE Lab hired their furry four-legged turtle sniffers again this year to help at sites across Illinois. Their skill at locating endangered Ornate Box Turtles was featured on the latest episode of The Forest Preserve District of Will County’s “The Buzz”
Ornate Box Turtles at 2021 Virtual Nachusa Science Symposium
PACE Lab PhD candidate Devin Edmonds participated in the Nachusa Grasslands Science Symposium on April 24th. He presented “An Update on Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata) Research at Nachusa Grasslands,” work he did for his M.S. studying the state threatened Ornate Box Turtle. Learn more about his research and findings.
UBAP ornithologist wins Best Poster Award
UBAP ornithologist Asya Rahlin presented a poster “Spatial and temporal drivers of marsh bird occupancy in an urbanized matrix” at the Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences Symposium and earned the award for Best Poster.
Read more about Asya’s research
2021 NRES Symposium
PACE Lab graduate students presented at the Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences Symposium, April 17th, 2021.
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- Alma C. Schrage presented “Bumble Bee Detection and Occupancy in Northern Illinois” Click for more info
- Devin Edmonds presented “Informing the Mantella cowanii Conservation Action Plan” Click for more info
- Anastasia Rahlin presented “Spatial and temporal drivers of marsh bird occupancy in an urbanized matrix” Click for more info
- Tyler Stewart presented “Distribution and Detection Probability for Kirtland’s Snake (Clonophis kirtlandii)” Click for more info
UBAP Malacologist wins 2021 Smith grant
Sarah Douglass, was announced as the 2021 Philip Smith Memorial Award Winner. Her submission was titled “Using environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect a rare freshwater mussel species, Salamander Mussel Simpsonaias ambigua, in the Embarras River, Illinois”. Sarah is an Malacologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey.
Wild Things Conference goes virtual
This year, the Wild Things Conference will be virtual and held over two weekends, with live events as well as pre-recorded talks. UBAP ornithologist Asya Rahlin and her collaborators Stephanie Beilke (Audubon Great Lakes), and Libby Keyes (Governors State University) will have a streaming session going during both weekends of the conference.
Their talk, “A New Bird Banding Station Lands in Chicago” will discuss their project establishing a bird banding station at Big Marsh in the Calumet Region.
Learn about the Chicago Ornithological Society’s bird banding station, which debuted at Big Marsh in 2020, and what they hope to find from using this new banding station to spur research and outreach in the Calumet region.
New paper on habitat restoration impacts on box turtles
Eastern Box Turtle growth is influenced by environmental conditions which in turn can be influenced by vegetative structure. Removal of Autumn Olive and Russian Olive at a site in Illinois occurred during a 16 year mark-recapture study allowing us to analyze impacts of removal on the growth of turtles. The data showed that removing the invasive plants may not negatively impact the growth of the turtles and that growth is variable by individual. This is attributed to reptile growth being influenced by more than just environmental conditions, including genetics.
Read the paper: Edmonds, D., A.R. Kuhns, and M.J. Dreslik. 2020. Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) growth and the impacts of invasive vegetation removal. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 15(3):588–596.
Saving the Harlequin Mantella
PACE Lab graduate student Devin Edmonds has been working to save one of the most threatened amphibian species in Madagascar. Listen to an interview he did with Amphibiacast about Mantella frogs, his time working in Madagascar, and his graduate research to conserve the Harlequin Mantella. A new conservation action plan will be released in the coming months.
Listen to the episode
Learn more about Devin’s research
Behind the Scenes: Finding one elusive bird
UBAP Ornithologist Asya Rahlin is conducting research on cryptic wetland birds utilizing eDNA. Join her as she recounts a hot, sticky day collecting samples at Volo Bog.
Read her Behind the Scenes
Behind the Scenes: Unearthing a fossorial snake
Graduate Student Tyler Stewart takes you on along on a search for the Kirtland’s Snake, Clonophis kirtlandii.
Read his story