July 30, 2022 | It was an amazing and wild final week working at the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine! We started to work on Monday preparing supplies for next round of microbiome sampling. We created labels for the 195 cryotubes used to hold swab samples and pipetted autoclaved molecular biology grade water into a sterile tubes. […]

July 23, 2022 | It was another amazing week working at the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine! This week we started by tracking all of the study turtles in Forest Park. We were able to locate all eight of the study turtles and record their location using GPS. Two of the Forest Park turtles, Ainoa and Kennedy, […]

July 17, 2022 | After spending last week with my family, this week I got right back to the action here in St. Louis! After an office day on Monday, we got to work tracking the Forest Park turtles. This week we collected location data, performed a general health check and weighed each turtle. One of the turtle’s tracking signals […]

July 2, 2022 | After an office day on Monday making final preparations for microbiome sampling later in the week, we got back to tracking turtles at WildCare Park on Tuesday. We had a successful day of tracking and were able to do a quick health check and record the location of the tagged turtles. We also had the […]

June 25, 2022 | It was another successful week of tracking turtles in the ICM! We once again checked the locations of each of the study turtles at the three research sites. This week was another hot one, and many of the turtles were still estivating and difficult to spot as they were buried in the leaf litter. We […]

June 18, 2022 | With highs in the upper 90s and several days reaching over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, it was a very warm week here in St. Louis! We spent the majority of the week working around the heat as we collected data for the Saint Louis Box Turtle Project. We started each day of tracking earlier in the […]

June 11, 2022 | All species that are part of an ecosystem are important to its overall health and balance. Perhaps the most intriguing part of an ecosystem are the animals at the top of the food chain. Animals like lions, tigers, wolves, and bears are among the most charismatic animals that people care about. However, the importance of […]

June 4, 2022 | After having Monday off for Memorial Day, we got right back to work early Tuesday morning making final preparations for microbiome sampling. The box turtle microbiome project consists of tracking all tagged individuals in Forest Park and Tyson Research Center, and then collecting a series of swabs, a blood sample, and performing a general health […]

June 1, 2022 | This was a wild week from start to finish! On Monday we looked for a new turtle to tag in Forest Park. A French film crew was interviewing Dr. Deem, the director of the Institute for Conservation Medicine. They were filming for a documentary about the next pandemic, and were very interested in seeing the […]

May 21, 2022 | It’s been an amazing first week at the Institute for Conservation Medicine! During the week, I was introduced to the ICM team and fellow interns and worked on my preceptorship exam. I was also introduced to the primary project I will be working on this summer, the Saint Louis Box Turtle Project. The box turtle […]