Earthshine Nature's Turtle Tracks: John Rucker's Turtle Dogs Return to Earthshine

In May of 2008 John Rucker and his wonderful turtle dogs returned to Earthshine Mountain Lodge to help me locate turtles for the Turtle Tracks Eastern Box Turtle conservation and research project.

The fields were about to be mowed so we had to find all the turtles we could in a few short hours before the fields were mowed. Luckily the weather turned sour--much colder and very windy--not very good turtle hunting weather so we only found 1 new turtle--"Catherine" who is now being radio tracked. The bad weather was great for the turtles of Earthshine since they would all be under cover when the mowers came the next morning.

Special thanks to John Rucker and Karen Judge for coming to Earthshine again to assist with the project.

Music by John Mason: The Old 1812 Quickstep-Liverpool Hornpipe", "Blackberry Blossom: and "I went Down to the River to Pray" For more music by John Mason check out: http://blueridgebreezes.com

Check out John Rucker's first visit to Earthshine here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF809re2vyU

For more information on John and the Turtledogs check out his website here: http://www.turtledogs.org

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• john
• rucker
• mason
• turtle
• dogs
• turtledogs
• boykin
• boyken
• spaniel
• eastern
• box
• conservation
• nature
• research
• management
• reptile
• earthshine
• mountain
• lodge

[palbo4]

that is so special!

[snakesteve68]

Thank you!

[ourDC888]

Wonderful! Thank you!

[snakesteve68]

That's a hoot!

[snakesteve68]

Thank you! Yes, it is really amazing what Johns dogs can do! While I agree that pointing would be a good way to train a dog to hunt for turtles especially during mating or egg laying, some of the areas that these dogs have retrieved turtles from would be impossible for a human to get into these huge thorn thickets so retrieving is the only way. I truly feel privileged to be able to work with John and his dogs. Without him this project would not have been possible.