Zoo InternQuest is a seven-week career exploration program for San Diego County high school juniors and seniors. Students have the unique opportunity to meet professionals working for the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research, learn about their jobs, and then blog about their experience online. Follow their adventures here on the Zoo’s website!
InternQuest paid a visit to the Reproductive Physiology Lab in the Beckman Center for Conservation Research, where we got to learn about how San Diego Zoo Global works to reproduce animals, as well as some lab time. Check out the photos below!
We started our day in the Reproductive Physiology Division with a tour of the lab and an in-depth description of a project they are currently involved in. The division is injecting testicular stem cells from exotic birds into chicken embryos in hopes that when the egg hatches and matures, the chicken will have 50 percent chicken sperm and 50 percent exotic sperm.
Nicole Ravida, a research Coordinator, and Carly Young, a Senior Research technician, spoke to us about what their jobs entail, as well as the basics of biology so we could have a better understanding of what we would be working on in the lab.
Dr. Barbara Durrant, the Director of the Reproductive Physiology Division, explained to us about certain problems there inevitably are in nature. According to Dr.Durrant, one main issue that occurs in captivity is that there is often an unequal balance of males and females in a given population. It’s incredibly important for there to be a good balance, and especially for there to be enough females, because in the end, females allow for life and the continuity of a species.
Ms.Young showed us an example of the work that had been previously completed in the lab. This poster shows different types of sperm for specific animals.
Getting our reproductive physiology science on! (Yes, that is a model of a giant sperm!) From top left: Sierra, Chris, Emma, Eliana. From bottom left, Teghan, Katherine (yours truly), and Molly
We are stoked to look at some Tule elk sperm!
Since the sperm samples from the Tule elk were collected a while ago, they were put into liquid nitrogen in order to cryopreserve them. We had to defrost them in order to work with them.
After using a pipette to transfer sperm onto a glass slide, we got to look at the sperm under a microscope.
In another part of this lab, we used dye to see if the sperm cells were dead or alive. If they were dead, then dye seeped through the plasma membrane of each cell.
Luckily, the microscope that Teghan and I used had a screen so everyone could see what was happening under the scope. To our surprise, our sperm cells were not as active as one might expect!
Katherine, Photo Team (Week 4)
