Our wish for the project is to be able to make a Common Snapping Turtle eDNA marker and test waterbodies around the Flathead valley for turtles. The Snapping Turtles are invasive to north western Montana and will kill native organisms, they will eat almost anything so that will damage our ecosystem. Snapping turtles also carry parasites and diseases.
First we will make a Common Snapping Turtle eDNA marker so we know what the Snapping Turtle DNA looks like. Next we will go and get water samples from around the Flathead Valley.After that we will take the samples to a lab and run them through a filter and put the filter in a PCR machine. The machine will tell us if Snapping Turtles are in that area. we will put all of our data the internet to help other people test for Common Snapping Turtles. We will also Put our data after testing on a map.
