Box turtle survey — with a canine assist — helps researchers understand where risks to human health might emerge

On Thursday, Allender, Rucker, a team of vets and students from the Wildlife Epidemiology Laboratory, and six of the spaniels — Yogi, Ruggie, Lazarus, Scamp, Skeeter and the silver-snouted matriarch Jenny Wren — set out across nearly 4,000 acres of protected prairie surrounded by Illinois farmland.