“So Beautiful, So Prehistoric”
In 1958, biology professor Eliot Williams H’53 and his students tagged a 10-year-old Eastern box turtle at the beginning of a research project at Allee Woods, the College’s 180-acre preserve in western Indiana.
Nearly 60 years later that turtle—named “Robin” by a new generation of students led by BKT Assistant Professor of Biology Brad Carlson—is thriving, and the research is more relevant than ever.
“The population of box turtles at Allee Woods seems to be doing well since Professor Williams and Bill Parker ’64 completed their monitoring in 1983—the number of turtles is probably slightly higher,” says Carlson, who continues to study the demographics of the population. He’s also added his own research on the behavior of the turtles.
“Box turtles are a good model system for studying the biology of personality, as we’ve found that individuals are highly divergent in their behavior,” Carlson says. “With the data we collect I’ll be able to examine the causes of these differences and their consequences.”
That’s even more important today than in the 1980s, as box turtles are listed as a “species of special concern” by the Indiana Department of Natural Resource.
In 2015, Carlson also collaborated with Purdue University researcher Steve Kimble, who wanted to survey the turtles for infections by ranavirus, a disease responsible for massive die-offs in reptile and amphibian populations.
“Turtle-tracking dogs were brought in over a weekend, and several students from my ecology course got a novel experience by assisting with processing the 15 turtles they found,” Carlson says.
For now, the “bold, curious, active” box turtles of Allee Woods continue to provide students with research experience, led by a scientist with a passion for the project not unlike that of his predecessor in the Wabash biology department.
“Even after many captures and encounters with these turtles, each one is still a little thrill to me,” Carlson says. “So beautiful and prehistoric, and each so unique.”