Chapel Pond Provides a Temporary Home for Endangered Species

Stewardship of creation includes responding to the way humans have impacted the natural world. At Olivet Nazarene University, this means learning to recognize each animal species as unique and precious to God - part of the creation God called "good" - and to care especially for those threatened by human use of the environment. This is evident in zoology courses and in Olivet's animal care team stewarding a menagerie of unique species within Reed Hall of Science. This fall, creation stewardship also meant using the campus itself to provide a winter home for an endangered Illinois reptile.

The Blanding's turtle is a native of the eastern United States and Canada and endangered in the state of Illinois. The turtles, which can grow to 10 inches in length and live for up to 80 years, are easily recognized by their bright yellow chin and throat. They travel long distances to nest, but these nests are often destroyed and, due to loss of marsh and wetland habitat throughout the state, numbers have long been in decline. [Link]

This year, Olivet was contacted by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, which has operated a breeding program for these endangered Illinois natives for the past 30 years and has released over 3,000 Blanding's turtles back into the wild. However, this year's release program was threatened when the DuPage facility tested positive for a shell fungus, a pathogen that could threaten the natural population. Instead of releasing the turtles, the DuPage facility needed to find local partners to house them and reached out to see if Olivet could take a single uninfected turtle for the winter. Dr. Parry Kietzman and Dr. Nick Troendle of the Olivet biology department realized the campus landscape itself could shelter several turtles, so 12 healthy turtles were welcomed to campus to overwinter in the retention pond behind Centennial Chapel.

In October the professors and a team of seven students introduced the turtles to their temporary home, where they will overwinter until May. The pond provides the perfect environment for the turtles, which are each microchipped for identification. Olivet's physical plant department modified the pond drains with grates to keep the turtles from wandering, and Dr. Troendle worked with students to construct two floating platforms for the turtles. In May the students and professors will catch the turtles, test them and, if healthy, return them to the forest preserve for release into the wild.

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For Amber Bogue, a senior biology major and admissions ambassador, the project is a great fit for Olivet's mission.

"Olivet focuses on showing the goodness of God, and in this we can preserve the species that He has created," she said.

Olivia Bish, another zoology senior, emphasized that helping with the project was about connecting with her colleagues while working to bring about positive change.

"This experience helped enrich my time at Olivet because it was a way to bond with others in my major and helped me feel like I was contributing to doing something good for the species of turtles," she said.

DuPage has previously partnered with organizations such as the Shedd Aquarium, Brookfield Zoo and universities including the University of Illinois, Wheaton College and Governors State University.

For more information about the Department of Biological Sciences, visit olivet.edu/biological-sciences.