I'm all for finding and studying them, but what they are doing is way overboard in my opinion. The dogs should not be retrieving them. The dogs should be trained to indicate a find without touching it, either with a sit or a down. This is what we do for explosives detection. Don't want the dogs grabbing bombs and running around with them, do we?. Its easy to train that way.
Then sticking the turtle in pencil cases and toting them around in back packs? Again, no. Weigh, measure, collect samples, and then release them right back where you found them a few minutes later.
Exactly what I was thinking when I read this article. Nice that they are conducting the research. BUT, their methods seem very disruptive.
thanks for commenting Tom.