NAFTRG Conducts Sampling Sessions in Florida

by: Nicole Salvatico Recently, the North American Freshwater Turtle Research Group (NAFTRG) held its October sampling in the Florida springs of Manatee, Fanning, and Ichetuknee. Over the course of the week, members Roxanne Losey, Dan and Eleanor Barrett, Jessy Wayles, and Nicole Salvatico were joined by students from the University of Central Florida and members […]

Invasive Snails & Eastern Musk Turtles in Texas!

Madeleine Morrison, one of the Turtle Survival Alliance’s North American Freshwater Turtle Research Group’s outstanding student volunteers, recently published a paper on the diet of Eastern Musk Turtles at our Comal Springs study site in the journal Herpetology Notes. This is a wonderful paper on invasive species as food sources at a unique study site. […]

Turtle Surveys Conducted in Comal Springs

by: Heather Lowe In May, the North American Freshwater Turtle Research Group (NAFTRG) conducted turtle surveys in Comal Springs (New Braunfels, Texas) for the second time in 2015. In all, the group has been sampling this site for more than three years now. During the trip, the weather proved to be a real challenge and […]

Musk Turtle Data Needed

by Eric Munscher The North American Freshwater Turtle Research Group (NAFTRG) recently gave a presentation on demographic variation of the common musk turtle (Sternotherus odoratus) in the southeast United States in the presence of congeners. We presented preliminary data from sites in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee, and throughout Florida. We are looking for more data […]

Anyone Can Volunteer!

by¬†Christine Bowie¬† You don’t have to be a researcher or a biologist to volunteer with the North American Freshwater Turtle Research Group (NAFTRG). Are you a strong swimmer? Don your wetsuit, fins and snorkel for capturing turtles in the water. Do you love turtles and the outdoors, but aren’t crazy about swimming? Volunteer to collect […]

Turtle Surveys Conducted in Comal Springs, Texas

by¬†Admin¬† The North American Freshwater Turtle Research Group (NAFTRG) recently conducted their annual February sample of the Comal Springs in New Braunfels, Texas. As always, a dedicated team of volunteers made the survey possible. A variety of institutions of learning, research, and conservation represented on this survey included the Houston Zoo, SeaWorld, Fort Worth Zoo, […]

NAFTRG Wraps Up Another Great Year of Sampling

by¬†Eric Munscher 2015 marked the sixteenth continuous year of turtle research conducted by the North American Freshwater Turtle Research Group (NAFTRG). This year started with a ten-day trip in March to seven research sites in Florida including a new park – Weeki Wachee Springs. During that trip, the NAFTRG was able to capture and process […]

NAFTRG Adds Wood Turtle Study Site

by¬†Jordan Gray What do you get when you add a group of gung-ho turtle enthusiasts, hours of satellite reconnaissance, hundreds of emails, permit applications and cool montane streams? Wood turtles…and a gaggle of other chelonians to boot. Such was the goal when Eric Munscher, Director of the Turtle Survival Alliance’s North American Freshwater Turtle Research […]

NAFTRG Begins AST Assessment

by¬†Jordan Gray¬† TSA-North American Freshwater Turtle Research Group Begins Alligator Snapping Turtle Population Assessment Carl Franklin with two large Alligator Snapping Turtles image courtesy Eric Munscher When they say “Everything’s Bigger in Texas” they aren’t kidding! With 34 native taxa of turtle and tortoise, Texas has more chelonian diversity than most countries. Of these 34 […]