Conducting research to aid the conservation of a species whose numbers have declined is often challenging precisely because they are scarce. For animals that are naturally secretive, they are even more difficult to detect and therefore study. One such species is the alligator snapping turtle which after decades of population decline has been petitioned for federal listing as an endangered species three times. These large turtles are of particular interest to Dr. Day Ligon, associate professor of biology at Missouri State.

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