Participants visited important Blanding's turtle locales, including Weaver Dunes and Camp Ripley in central Minnesota. Blanding's populations differ in size, shape, and coloration from place to place. The species is ancient. Recognizable shell fragments in Nebraska are 5.5 million years old. During the Pleistocene, when glaciers moved back and forth across much of the continent, the species' range was much larger and extended south to what is now the state of Mississippi and west to Oklahoma.
Most populations are small, fragmented, and threatened or endangered.
We dodged artillery, tanks, and troops, spending long hours and many days studying the small but secure population. We were amazed by the turtles' large body sizes, as well as their exceptionally large clutches, eggs, and hatchlings. Everywhere else, Blanding's turtles are 10 to 15 percent smaller. Why these turtles are so large remains a mystery. We observed that the turtles at Ripley spent most of their time in and around water.