"An important part of a team that's helping to monitor the health of prairie grasslands." ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. In spring, box turtles emerge from their underground winter dens. Drivers across the Midwest and Great Plains may spot them on the ...

Dog handler John Rucker collects an ornate box turtle that one of his six Boykin spaniels located and brought to him May 6, 2021, at the Nachusa Grasslands in Lee County. John Rucker hunts for ornate ...

FRANKLIN, Ill. — For nearly 50 years, the ornate box turtle has been endangered or threatened. Highly sought after as pets, they're even poached and traded on the black market. Conservationists are ...

Researchers and conservation staff are working to preserve rare sand prairie habitats at this metro-east site.

A team of Illinois researchers is using dogs to track down a threatened species of turtle. Researchers believe ornate box turtles, once living in half of Illinois' 102 counties, are found in less than ...

Below a clouded sky in the middle of Illinois prairie, a handsome brown spaniel dashed ahead through brambles and bobbed back up with a catch. There, resting in his jaws as his tail wagged, was a ...