This article summarizes the thesis research of UCO graduate student Marie Babb. Babb studies turtles in a five-acre pond near Piedmont, spending 5-8 hours per day gluing radio transmitters to turtle shells to track their movements. She assists UCO professor Paul Stone, who has conducted an ongoing turtle study at the pond since 1996 involving capturing turtles in nets and recording their measurements. Babb's research for her master's thesis involves further contributing to the long-term study.

1. Photo by Timber Massey
Marie Babb, UCO graduate student, working toward a master's degree in biology examines a turtle as part of her research.
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AUGUST 22, 2002 the SCENE WWW.THEVISTAONLINE.COM
The gleaming Oklahoma sun drops below the
horizon and casts an orange and red glow across
miles of cow fields and dusty gravel roads.
Two shadows can be seen, relaxing in lawn
chairs, amidst towering weeping willows by a
sparkling country pond. Their skin is dark tan
and their bare feet are covered with mud.
"This one is a 2-year-old juvenile with 10 per-
cent algae," Marie Babb says, as she grasps a
slimy, writhing turtle with both hands and studies
the markings on its shell.
Babb is a UCO graduate student working
toward a master's degree in biology, which
requires a thesis project.
The thesis project consists of either a literature
option, which requires countless hours in the
library writing a thesis paper, or a field option,
which usually involves experimentation.
For Babb the choice was easy.
She spends around five to eight hours a day,
seven days a week researching turtles in a five-acre
pond near Piedmont.
Babb has glued radio transmitters to the shell of
around fifteen turtles in the pond. Each radio has
a different frequency that she uses to home in on
the turtles in order to study their travel range.
Babb takes out a device and begins to measure
the turtle's shell. The turtle rears back its serpent-
like head.
nets that are located on the outer edges of the
pond. There are usually around 10 to 17 nets
placed at 80 different reference points.
After the turtles are captured they are measured
and weighed. Their information is recorded in a
capture book, Stone said.
Stone marks the turtles by making tiny chips on
the outer edge of their shells. The chips are placed
at different points for each turtle.
Babb has assisted Stone with his research for the
last three seasons. The season
begins in March and ends in
November. This season is the first
that will go toward her master's
degree.
"My mom is always laughing
and telling me what a dork I am,"
she said with a smile.
"Then one day she came with
me out to the pond and she saw
how beautiful and peaceful it
was."
Stone and Babb have recently
returned from a trip to the south-
west corner of New Mexico where
they have an on-going study of
around 300 turtles.
"I guess I will keep on
researching turtles until the day
that I die," said Stone.
Students
shell out
turtle
research
by Timber Massey
tm@thevistaonline.com
"Watch out, she's trying to bite you," says Dr.
Paul Stone, a UCO associate professor of biology.
Stone has been conducting an on-going study
of turtles since 1996. The pond is located in the
backyard of UCO graduate Ron Hoggard and his
wife, Gloria.
"Ever since I was a little boy, I have been chas-
ing around snakes and turtles," says Stone, squint-
ing under the brim of his faded baseball cap.
"I finally found a job where I could get paid
doing it."
He estimated that there are around 1,500 tur-
ties living in the pond, most of which he caught on
several occasions.
Some of the turtles are around 30 to 50 years
old, he said.
The pond contains four different species of tur-
des, the most common of which being the Red-
eared Slider, according to St one.
Stone and his assistants capture the turtles in