From classrooms to fieldwork: 2025-26 Science Education and Outreach Fellow Caleb Krueger

Hey there! My name’s Caleb, and I’m entering my fifth year as a Ph.D. student in Fred Janzen’s lab at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. Since I was a little kid, I’ve had turtles on the brain, and that’s still true when it comes to my research at KBS. 

So, why turtles?

Turtles are considered one of the most endangered animal groups, and my research is geared toward understanding how landscapes and climate affect them, both as individuals and populations. Knowing their biology, like how turtles move about the environment or how nest conditions affect baby turtles, helps improve and guide conservation decisions. Plus, asking these questions means I get to go out in the swamps and bogs to catch and handle some wild turtles, so it’s a win-win!

But why that turtle? 

Ask me which turtle is my favorite, and I’ll feel obligated to say it’s the one I’m studying for my Ph.D., the spotted turtle. These 4-inch-long, yellow-spotted beauties live in wetlands across the eastern U.S. and Canada, but habitat loss and poaching have caused widespread population declines. My research hopes to combat these declines by using genetic data to 

• Divide the whole range of the species into distinct ‘management units’ and
• Identify the origin of poached individuals. 

Other projects of mine include looking at which habitats actually have spotted turtle populations, and how turtles in these populations move about their wetlands and the surrounding areas.

Sharing my love of biology 

Now, when you love turtles and biology as much as I do, you can’t help but share it with others. I’ve been fortunate to tutor and teach courses like vertebrate anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, ecology, and herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles!), but I particularly love outdoor and hands-on learning experiences. After all, catching frogs and snakes as a kid is a big part of why I am where I am today. During this coming year, I’m looking forward to 

• Providing similar experiences to K-12 students and teachers 
• Leading field trips and workshops, and 
• Doing my best to convince everyone it’s turtles all the way down.

(P.S. – Congrats, you read the whole thing! Now, what’s REALLY my favorite turtle? That has to be the red-crowned roof turtle, Batagur kachuga. Look it up! I bet you didn’t know turtles could be so colorful.)

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Caleb Krueger is a Ph.D. student in the Janzen Lab at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station and a 2025-26 science education and outreach fellow.
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