Specially trained spaniels key to locating elusive ornate box turtles for research in Illinois

Ruger, Yogi, and Skeeter are unfazed by the on-again, off-again rain this chilly morning. The three Boykin spaniels have a job to do – and it’s obvious from their wagging tails and enthusiastic trotting that they love their occupation.

“Find turtle! Find turtle!” shouts the dogs’ owner and trainer, John Rucker. And the three chocolate-colored dogs are off again, scampering through the prairie at Illinois’ TNC’s Nachusa Grasslands Preserve in Lee County, pausing every few feet to sniff a fallen branch or the roots of native grasses.

The dogs are searching for ornate box turtles, a threatened species in Illinois, for a box turtle monitoring project being conducted by the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Brookfield Zoo of Chicago.

UIUC veterinarian and BZC’s Director of Conservation Medicine and Sciences, Dr. Matt Allender, leads the investigation and warns us that the chance of finding many ornate box turtles today is low. It’s not so much the drizzling rain as the 50-some degree Fahrenheit temperature. Turtles tend to hide underground on chilly days.

Our group’s disappointment is tempered by the joy of watching the floppy-eared affectionate spaniels – as well as the beauty of the prairie in early spring. TNC’s Dr. Elizabeth Bach, ecosystem restoration scientist at Nachusa, points out native flowers, including the blue spires of wild lupine and the bright yellow clusters of Golden Alexanders.

Just when the expedition is about to wrap up for the morning, Rucker shouts: “Turtle! Turtle!”

We all rush over to see: Skeeter stands triumphant by Rucker’s side, holding an ornate box turtle tenderly in her mouth.

“You see the way she just wouldn’t give up, circling, circling around the spot,” Rucker said proudly of Skeeter. “She knew she could smell the turtle, but she just had to micro hunt until finally she was touching it with her snout.”

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COLLECTING TURTLES

Ornate box turtles were once found in nearly half of Illinois’ 102 counties. Researchers now believe they inhabit fewer than 10 counties.

The turtle captured by Skeeter is gently removed from her mouth and held out for us to see. The fist-sized turtle has a lovely domed shell embellished with yellow rays like those in a child’s drawing of the sun.

It has almost completely sealed itself inside its shell – a box turtle’s defensive trait. All members of this species have a hinged lower casing, which allows them to tightly box themselves up whenever they sense danger.

A primary reason for the population decline is the conversion of the turtle’s home turf for agriculture and development. These terrestrial (land-based) reptiles live only in prairie, grassland, and oak savanna habitats – preferably those with sandy soil, which allow them to easily burrow underground.

“You have probably seen the statistic that less than 0.01% of the original prairie remains in Illinois,” Allender said. “For ornate box turtles, this means there are not many suitable places left for them to live in the state.”

TNC’s Nachusa Grasslands offers the turtles an expansive home. At 4,000 acres, the preserve is one of the largest prairie restoration sites in the state.

“From a turtle preservation perspective, the quality of the site matters,” Bach said. “You have to keep their spaces healthy and let them do their turtle thing.”

Today, the research team and the dogs are searching for ornates in a section of Nachusa that TNC purchased about 15 years ago. The original prairie was never plowed, only grazed, which made it a good site for restoration – and for ornate box turtles, Bach said.

Keeping the original home sites of ornate box turtles intact and healthy is important to their survival, Bach stressed. The reason: ornates tend to be faithful homebodies. If the turtles are moved outside their home range, they often attempt to walk back, possibly crossing highways and other dangerous roads to get there.

This tendency makes it difficult to establish new populations of ornate box turtles by transferring adults to suitable habitats, such as reconstructed prairie sites.

Bach offered this advice to anyone who comes across a turtle who appears lost: “The best thing to do is to let them go where they want. If a turtle is crossing the road, it’s OK to help them, just be sure to move them to the side of the road they are attempting to reach.”

THE TURTLE DOG

A dog’s sense of smell is estimated to be 10,000 to 100,000 times better than a human’s. Research has found that canines have about 30% more olfactory receptors than people do. They are also very good at detecting a specific scent when surrounded by a distracting number of odors.

It’s no wonder dogs have become essential workers in airline security, search and rescue operations and other occupations that require a sensitive nose. Dogs also have been trained for a variety of conservation tasks, such as finding endangered bumblebee nests and sniffing out the dung of leopards, bears, and other wild animals to help scientists estimate numbers in these populations.

DOGS IN ACTION

When it comes to seeking out and studying turtles, Rucker’s squad of Boykin spaniels have become critical to scientists and conservationists across North America.

Rucker discovered on a hunting trip that some Boykin spaniels have an affinity for seeking out and finding turtles. Thus began a second career for the retired English teacher and nature lover. Rucker now raises, trains, and transports his dogs around the country to help find and monitor various types of turtles, including Eastern box, Blanding’s, and wood turtles.

“Every single morning out with the dogs is just so special,” Rucker said.

“They teach me things every day.”

Boykin spaniels are known as soft-mouthed dogs, which means they are easily trained to gently pick up and carry creatures and items in their mouths without harming them. The South Carolina breed was originally bred to hunt pheasants and other birds.  “I’m careful to train the dogs not to be hardmouthed or they’ll be ruined for turtle seeking,” Rucker said.

This is the ninth spring that the dogs have helped the UIUC team find ornate box turtles at Nachusa. “The dogs are tremendous tools for conservation,” Allender said. Humans, who must rely on their eyes to find turtles, usually only find about one turtle every four hours, he said. In comparison, trained dog teams find about eight turtles per search hour, according to one study.

THE RESEARCH

A flag is placed at the spot where Skeeter found the turtle so that the creature can be returned to the same location after the scientists have a chance to examine it. The examination was done at a makeshift veterinary laboratory in the flatbed of a pickup truck.

The scientists took various measurements on the turtle that Skeeter found, as well as a second turtle discovered earlier in the morning. The two turtles were weighed, measured and examined. Their temperatures were taken, and their heart rates detected with a portable Doppler monitor.

Blood also was drawn to analyze later for signs of disease, ranging from anemia and inflammation to poor kidney function. A test for ranavirus – considered the Ebola of cold-blooded animals, including turtles – will also be performed. While rare, ranavirus outbreaks can quickly decimate populations.

TURTLE CHECK-UP

The ongoing research, which has been under way for 18 years, aims to identify health trends over time and across sites in ornate box turtles, as well as its cousin the Eastern box turtle. Data has been collected on more than 4,000 turtles in Illinois and Tennessee.

Because the researchers return most years to Nachusa and other locations, they often catch the same turtles more than once, which helps identify how the turtle’s health has changed over time. One of the turtles found is a repeat capture. The researchers know from the notches in the reptile’s shell, which is a painless way to mark a turtle for ongoing study. 

Both turtles found – one female and one male – appear to be healthy based on the initial exam. The shell of one turtle has healed-over puncture wounds, likely from a coyote or other predator, but the turtle was unharmed.

Before returning the turtles to the prairie, Dr. Laura Adamovicz, UIUC research scientist, placed a tiny transmitters on them, which will allow her to find the turtles for a related study. She will be closely following 50 ornate box turtles across different sites in Illinois from May to October. Once a month, she will revisit each site and find the turtles she has tagged with a transmitter to repeat the health exams and tests.

“We usually only seek out the turtles once a year in spring, and we want to understand how their health status changes over the season,” Adamovicz said. “Reptiles are different to mammals because their physiology is so tied to temperature. A lot of their health variables will change based on what’s going on outside.”

TNC’s Nachusa Grasslands Preserve draws scientists from around the globe to conduct research on a variety of ecological and biological issues related to prairies.

“We love coming here,” Adamovicz said. “The staff at Nachusa are doing fantastic work with restoration and are very supportive of science. Plus, they happen to have a good population of ornates, which we are eager to examine. It’s the whole package.”

TNC echoes the sentiment back to all the scientists who use the preserve for research, which helps conservationists and partners stay on top of the latest restoration know-how. “The turtle research helps us get a sense for how we can better manage the habitat here at Nachusa to improve the health and quality of life for these turtles and other wildlife,” Bach said.

A number of insights into box turtles and conservation have been uncovered by scientists. For instance, a study led by UIUC researchers – conducted at Nachusa and two other natural areas – provided invaluable information on when ornate box turtles are almost guaranteed to be underground (Nov. 1 through April 1).

This is helping TNC determine when to time prescribed fire, a key restoration tool, to protect turtles. 

Another study, co-authored by researchers from the Illinois Natural History Survey, UIUC, and the Brookfield Zoo of Chicago, analyzed data collected on ornate box turtles from Nachusa and another site owned by the Illinois DNR. The analysis suggests that ornate box turtles may be on a slow decline at both sites. One key take-away is the necessity of protecting reproductive female turtles. Healthy females lay more eggs over more seasons than unhealthy ones, ensuring the long-term stability of the population.

All in all, research shows that maintaining and restoring high-quality prairie sites like Nachusa is one of the most important ways to keep box turtle populations healthy. Another is to stay on top of the health of these creatures so that serious health problems can be detected, addressed and prevented. Toward that end, the turtle dogs are providing a vital service.

As the turtle outing wound down, Rucker brought out the newest member of his team: Penny, a floppy-eared, energetic puppy who is currently in training to become a future turtle dog.

Penny ran from one person to another seeking hugs and attention.

What better way to end a delightful and fascinating day than to play with a puppy surrounded by wildflowers and laughing people – all in the name of science.