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Dear Backers:

The dogs have come and gone and left us with samples! They found 14 turtles for us (compared to one found by us humans), ten male and five female. We found one juvenile, but all others were adults. We would have liked to see more young turtles, which suggests healthy breeding, but they are very difficult to find, even for dogs.

All the turtles appeared to be healthy but we took swabs and blood samples and are in the process of testing those. We also found a turtle with its original 1958 marking, making this guy at least 66 years old, since every turtle they marked that year was at least 10 years old! Look closely on the photos I've posted on the project description page at experiment.com and you can see holes and a metal tag on his rear scutes.

Visit the project page to see video and pictures from the search! And a big thanks for John Rucker and his amazing turtle dogs!

Thanks,

Turtle Team