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San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research

3

A Closer Look at Burrowing Owls

By
Colleen Wisinski
– May 21, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Animals site sub feature, Birds, Conservation, Projects in the Field, Uncategorized
Note the difference in coloration (female on left, male on right) with this burrowing owl pair.

Note the difference in coloration (female on left, male on right) with this burrowing owl pair.

For the past two years, our burrowing owl project has been focused on how to effectively relocate California ground squirrels to help re-engineer nonnative grasslands and make them more amenable to burrowing owls (see Burrowing Owls: Closer than You Think and Digging into Burrowing Owl Recovery). But this year, we get to take a closer look at the owls themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I love the squirrels (more than I ever thought I would), but I’m a bird biologist, so I’m really excited to start working directly with the burrowing owls!

Burrowing owls range widely across the western US and make use of a variety of “grassland” habitats, from open prairie to empty suburban lots to airports. But their populations are declining, mostly due to loss of habitat and eradication of the fossorial (digging) mammals that they depend on to build burrows. One solution is the installation of artificial burrows. However, artificial burrows are not self-sustaining like natural squirrel burrows and, although we know the owls use them, we don’t know how they compare to natural burrows.

A male burrowing owl guards his burrow entrance.

A male burrowing owl guards his burrow entrance.

This year, one of our main objectives is to compare reproductive output, food provisioning, and predation at natural versus artificial burrows, using camera traps and banding the birds to accomplish this. The camera traps allow us to see what is going on at the burrow while we aren’t there, and the banding allows us to identify each individual (see Bling with a Purpose).

At this point, the breeding season is in full swing. We are monitoring almost 30 nest burrows (both natural and artificial); this includes placing camera traps at about 20 of the burrows. We check on each burrow about once a week (we don’t want to visit too often and risk disturbing the birds) and do any camera trap maintenance needed, such as changing batteries and switching out the memory cards that contain our priceless data in the form of photographs. We also watch the birds from a distance to figure out what stage of the breeding season they are in—for me, this is the best part!

A camera trap photo shows a burrowing owl pair allopreening at their burrow entrance.

A camera trap photo shows a burrowing owl pair allopreening at their burrow entrance.

Over the last two months, we have been inventorying burrows and following their progression through the breeding season. On any given day, we head out to the field in the morning and work our way through our route for the day checking on each burrow as we go. When we arrive at a burrow, we observe from the truck (which acts as our blind) from a safe distance to see what is going on at the burrow. Early in the breeding season, we might see both parent birds or just the male standing guard at a burrow. In general, the males are lighter in color than the females, because they spend more time outside so the sun bleaches their feathers. As the breeding season progresses, the difference in plumage becomes more marked, as the males get more and more bleached. By the end of the summer, though, it can be hard to tell the males and females apart as both get bleached by the sun.

Two burrowing owl chicks rest at the burrow entrance while Mom stands guard. Camera trap photo.

Two burrowing owl chicks rest at the burrow entrance while Mom stands guard. Camera trap photo.

Once the pair has chosen their nest burrow, we usually only see the male of the pair; he is often standing watch over the burrow from nearby (often at the entrance of a satellite burrow where he spends much of his time—we call it the “man cave”). At this point, the female is spending most of her time in the burrow incubating the eggs. After about a month, the eggs hatch, and two weeks after that, the young start to come out to the burrow entrance. We usually do a quick examination of the photos in the field to help us determine if there are chicks present, but we also get good clues from the female’s behavior. If she is very protective of the burrow or stays very close to the burrow when we approach, it’s a safe bet that there are babies in the burrow.

Currently, we have nests in all different stages of breeding—some have pretty large chicks, some still have eggs, and some still seem to be deciding if they are even going to breed. In the coming weeks, we will band all of the owls from burrows that have camera traps, and over the next several months, we will pour over the hundreds of thousands of camera trap photos to catalogue how often prey was delivered to the burrow, what type of prey was brought, what types of predators come to the burrow, and other pertinent information. This is a huge undertaking, since we have almost 40 camera traps set up that can take over 30,000 pictures in one week alone! Any volunteers? Seriously, if you’re interested in helping, visit our volunteer page and sign up! Who wouldn’t want to spend their time looking at pictures of these adorable and comical little birds?!

Colleen Wisinski is a senior research technician for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

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0

“Fiddler on the Roof” Meets Conservation Biology

By
Henry Fandel
– May 14, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Birds, Conservation, Projects in the Field, Uncategorized
San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike

How does the busiest, most critical part of the year—the breeding season—even begin for the shrikes and staff of the San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike Breeding Program?

Since 1989, the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, in conjunction with the United States Navy, has been making great efforts to recover endangered San Clemente loggerhead shrikes by breeding them in aviaries and releasing juveniles into the wild. Because of the efforts of the Zoo, the Navy, and those of partner conservation organizations, this shrike subspecies, which occurs only on Navy-owned San Clemente Island off the coast of California, has increased from a population of 14 individual birds in 1998 to 65 breeding pairs in 2013. Although there is much work yet to be done, the recovery program’s success story is well known. But what exactly goes into such a project? More interestingly, what goes into the busiest, most critical part of the year for the program? How does the busiest, most critical part of the year—the breeding season—even begin for the shrikes and staff of the San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike Breeding Program?

The breeding effort begins in January, when we receive a very exciting document delivered by Tandora Grant, the San Clemente loggerhead shrike’s studbook keeper. It is her responsibility to use genetic and demographic statistics to determine which of our shrikes to breed each year. Two important factors that come into play during Tandora’s matchmaking are the representation of our birds’ genes in the wild population’s gene pool and each of our bird’s personal breeding history. It is vital to balance these two factors to maximize the positive impact our program has on the recovery of the shrike; too few juveniles to release at the end of the season results in a low probability of their surviving to breed the next year, but releasing many genetically invaluable juveniles is potentially detrimental to the recovery of the species. Think Fiddler on the Roof meets conservation biology; the document Tandora delivers is the year’s breeding recommendations, and it contains the season’s breeding pairs, whether the birds are happy with her choices or not! More often than not, the birds are happy, but the document also contains alternate pairings should any of the chosen shrikes display a lack of motivation when it comes time to court each other.

In the first week of February, after we have prepared the breeding aviaries for the upcoming season, the select females are moved into aviaries adjacent to their males in a logistics puzzle that has been appropriately named “The Big Move.” You can imagine how hard it is to place 12 to 15 specific pairs next to each other in appropriately outfitted breeding enclosures when we have a flock size of over 60 birds and a grand total of about 80 enclosures! Though it is sometimes difficult and requires lots of planning, a little bit of luck, and plenty of cooperation from the shrikes, The Big Move is important, because it is designed to imitate the natural movement of wild shrikes.

In the wild, male and female San Clemente loggerhead shrikes maintain exclusive and solitary winter territories; however, come breeding season, females leave their winter grounds to search for attractive mates. By moving a specific year’s breeding males into their breeding enclosures and the female’s into enclosures adjacent to their chosen mates, we aim to simulate the female’s discovery of her mate. Once the breeding pairs have been placed in their adjacent enclosures, they have entered the “pre-pair” phase of the breeding season. This is the time for the males to court the females by displaying, singing, nest building, and most importantly, feeding them lots of bugs! If all goes well, we will be able to move on to the next phase—pairing.

Henry Fandel is a research associate for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

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0

Building Conservation Foundation by Training Teachers in Peru

By
Samantha Young
– May 8, 2013Posted in: Conservation, Projects in the Field
Teachers investigate a cactus at the Spectacled Bear Conservation Center.

Teachers investigate a cactus at the Spectacled Bear Conservation Center.

Forty-six! That’s how many teachers attended our recent environmental education professional development workshops, in collaboration with the Spectacled Bear Conservation Society, in Peru. That’s also the minimum number of classrooms that will be affected by the methods and materials that were discussed over the 10 days spent at the Conservation Center in Batan Grande, Peru. And it’s pretty safe to assume that each teacher has about 25 students. Hmm… 46 x 25 = 1,150. Maybe it’s a little premature to say we’ve touched the lives of over a thousand children and possibly their families, but I’m overly optimistic. It’s a pretty good number, if you ask me.

I work in the Conservation Education Division of the Institute for Conservation Research, the research arm of the San Diego Zoo. But rather than thinking about what I do as education, we like to think of what we’re doing in northern Peru, in support of the Andean bear conservation project, as capacity building. This is an approach to working with communities to enhance their abilities to allow them to achieve measurable and sustainable results. Having learned a bit about the communities over the last year and a half, I’ve come to know some of the modern challenges they face. It is my job to assist them in finding their potential and developing a “tool kit” for sustainable, improved living. This tends to have a measurable, positive impact on the forest and Andean bears. In this way, we are helping to address the human dimension of conservation.

Teachers in a small group discussion, with the education coordinator of the Spectacled Bear Conservation Society, Francisco Nolberto Aurich Terrones.

Teachers interact in small group discussions outside the Spectacled Bear Conservation Society.

Instead of a lot of lecturing by professionals and sitting and listening by students, we conducted the workshops in an inquiry and project-based learning format. Inquiry involves the quest to learn more about the things that interest us. Project-based learning directly engages participants through projects applicable to life outside the classroom. The workshop was also conducted as if the participating teachers were their own students in a classroom, similarly to how we conduct our summer teacher workshops at the Institute. Using these tools, we hope to increase their active engagement with students, encourage investigation of the things in which they are interested, and provide them with tools that they can use in their everyday lives. Actually, these workshops were modeled after the Earth Expeditions program offered in conjunction with Miami University of Ohio and the Advanced Inquiry Master’s Program (check out the new Earth Expedition going to Hawaii this summer and the new Advanced Inquiry Program being offered by the Zoo!).

Samantha, in front, poses with the first group of teachers at the end of Workshop 1, wearing their commemorative T-shirts.

Samantha, in front, poses with the first group of teachers at the end of Workshop 1, wearing their commemorative T-shirts.

Although there were some unanticipated challenges, I think it’s safe to say that overall the workshops were quite successful. Teachers were engaged. They asked questions. They were exposed to new methods and got up close and personal with the inquiry process, as well as the San Diego Zoo and the Spectacled Bear Conservation Society. We had guest speakers from the area and active investigations, and the teachers developed their own network of educators interested in conservation in the region. Teachers were also challenged to develop a conservation action project to implement in their village, tied in with the curriculum.

We will stay in contact and provide support and advice for these projects throughout the school year of March through December. And at the end of the year, we hope students will showcase their conservation projects in a festival celebrating community-based conservation to ensure that these great lessons make their way to the next generation.

Samantha Young is a conservation educator for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Can Cute Trinkets Save Andean Bears?

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4

A Trip Down Memory Lane

By
Rebecca Espinoza
– April 15, 2013Posted in: Animals and Plants, Birds, Conservation, Hawaiian Birds, Projects in the Field, Uncategorized
Rebecca tells students about the work she does helping endangered Hawaiian birds.

Rebecca tells students about the work she does helping endangered Hawaiian birds.

While it has been a long time since I stepped into a classroom, the second I walked onto Pahala Elementary School’s campus a flood of memories of my own school days came rushing back. I remember coming into the first class of the day and still wanting time to chat with my friends. I remember the small tables and chairs that I know I used to fit into, though now it’s difficult to imagine. And while I remember the class bells ringing in school, yesterday I was very nearly shocked out of my skin when the bell signaled the start of class. I guess that’s the sort of thing you never notice as a kid.

That morning I had the pleasure of assisting Robin Keith, a member of the Conservation Education Division at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, in administering an essay contest to the sixth- and seventh-grade classes of Pahala Elementary and Ka‘u High School in Pahala, Hawaii. This essay contest was designed to discover a student’s own interpretation of, and experiences with, wildlife. The information will help guide our conservation education and outreach programs in support of our Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program. Some students struggled at the beginning, not really sure what to write about, but in the end they all submitted great stories. Two winners will be chosen at random, and that student will be taking his or her entire class on a field trip to the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii.

Students work on their wildlife conservation essays.

Students work on their wildlife conservation essays.

After the essay portion of the class, Robin spoke about current conservation issues facing Hawaii and about techniques used at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center (KBCC) for saving native Hawaiian birds. Then it was my turn to field any questions that the students had about KBCC. I have spent the past six years working with some of the most endangered and difficult-to-rear bird species in Hawaii, but when it came to commanding the attention of 12 and 13 year olds, I was a bit daunted. Usually, when I’m presenting information about my job, I’m in my workplace with every conceivable prop and medium available to showcase the native birds. Here, however, I was standing at the front of the classroom with nothing but my strong voice, great bird conservation information, a smile, and enthusiasm for my job! In the end, I hope the students walked away with a great writing exercise and some valuable information about Hawaiian bird conservation. I walked away from the campus hoping that I had planted at least one seed of love and respect for native Hawaiian wildlife.

I must send out a very big mahalo (thank you, in Hawaiian) to the teachers of Pahala Elementary and Ka‘u High School for allowing Robin and me to invade their classes and for their enthusiasm in teaching their students environmental education. Another very big mahalo to the wonderful students, who had excellent questions about the birds and embraced the essay-writing challenge. We look forward to future collaborations with students and teachers on the Big Island as we work to foster pride and support for conservation of Hawaii’s natural heritage.

Rebecca Espinoza is a research associate at the San Diego Zoo’s Keauhou Bird Conservation Center.

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2

Tortoise in the Glass: Evaluating Health Problems

By
Kali Holder
– April 15, 2013Posted in: Animals and Plants, Animals site sub feature, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo, Desert Tortoises, Reptiles and Amphibians, Uncategorized

To you, a typical tortoise might look like this:

desert tortoise adult

But to me, a tortoise may also look like this:

desert tortoise tissue samples

I’m a veterinary pathologist, which means I spend a lot of quality time looking through a microscope at slides with tissues to try to evaluate health problems that show up as changes in those tissues. I can find dying cells, inflammation, various pathogens, scarring, thinning, thickening, bleeding, tumors, strange crystals, and unusual pigments. All of the changes help us understand the health problems affecting an animal.

At the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, I work exclusively on tortoises that have died at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. Why bother? Well, it turns out that one of the best ways to figure out what health indicators most accurately indicate disease is to compare the information from the live tortoise to the changes we see in the tissues if the animal dies. The more we know about which tools work to predict severity and type of disease, the faster and more precise we are at identifying and helping animals at risk.

To get information from enough tortoises to allow good conclusions to be drawn, I need to look at a lot of slides. Since 2009, over 4,500 slides have been made of desert tortoise tissues, providing an invaluable resource for the understanding of disease in desert tortoises. Since November 2012, I’ve been describing the changes I see so that they can be correlated to what was found in the live animal. Thankfully, I haven’t been working all alone; Dr. Lily Cheng, another veterinary pathologist, volunteered to spend two whole months staring at a mountain of desert tortoise slides. Between the two of us, we’ve done more than 3,000 slides belonging to over 250 tortoises!

Are you curious about what sorts of things we see? Good! We are always on the lookout for bacteria or viruses that cause that most feared of tortoise infections: upper respiratory disease. This is more than just a head cold like people get and is a big factor in tortoise population decline. Some savvy souls may note that no light microscope can show an individual virus particle (you really need an electron microscope for that, since viruses are smaller than the wavelength of visible light). Conveniently, however, some viruses clump together to form rafts of virus particles. These are big enough to see with a microscope, just as you can see a patch of lawn even if you are too far away to pick out a single blade of grass. The virus most common and dangerous in tortoise respiratory disease (herpesvirus) forms these aggregations in the nuclei of cells, and they are called intranuclear inclusions.

Below are some cells from a tortoise that had severe upper respiratory disease. On the left side of the picture, you can see normal nuclei: round or oval purple shapes that look very speckled, like chocolate chip cookies. On the right side of the picture, the nuclei are bigger and have clumps of magenta in the center surrounded by a clear rim. They no longer resemble chocolate chip cookies at all. Those magenta blobs are viral inclusions from herpesvirus!

Herpes inclusions

The work continues at a good pace, and there are only about 1,300 slides left to look at. They weigh almost 7 kilograms (15 pounds) altogether. Wish me luck!

Kali Holder, D.V.M., is a postdoctoral associate in the Wildlife Disease Laboratories for San Diego Zoo Global.

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11

White Rhino Births: What We Know and Don’t Know

By
Christopher Tubbs
– April 2, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo, Uncategorized
Eight-Day-Old Southern White Rhino Kayode

Kayode, at 8 days old, frolics at the Safari Park.

For the first time in about 12 years, a newborn southern white rhino is running around at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. His name is Kayode, and he’s a spunky little dude, charging the Cape buffalo with his mother, Kacy, following close behind. He’s a welcome, if not long awaited, addition to the herd. You might be wondering why there aren’t more calves like Kayode cavorting at the Safari Park? Why has more than a decade passed between southern white rhino births?

In zoos around the world this trend appears to be commonplace. Females brought in from the wild to establish zoo-based breeding programs have generally reproduced relatively well compared to females born in captivity. The reason why remains unclear. We suspect that most zoo diets contain plants that produce chemicals called phytoestrogens. During their 16-month gestation, female white rhinos could be exposed to these compounds through Mom’s diet, resulting in permanent fertility issues later in life. In many other species, exposure to phytoestrogens during gestation causes similar reproductive problems.

Notice the words I use here: appears, generally, relatively well, could be. Even coming from a scientist (a notoriously skeptical bunch), these statements do not inspire much confidence. That’s because this breeding problem is particularly complex, and solid data proving that captive-born females have a breeding problem, and that it is caused by diet, is hard to come by. Here are a few questions and answers demonstrating what we know and what we don’t know:

Q: Do captive-born female southern white rhinoceros have trouble reproducing?
A: It looks that way. Depending on the study, estimates of the percentage of captive- born females that have reproduced ranges from 10 percent to about 50 percent. However, a more thorough investigation of individual histories that may preclude reproduction needs to be conducted. In other words, determining if non-reproducers even had access to mates, were housed in properly sized enclosures, or lived in appropriate social groups will give a more accurate indication of the extent of the problem.

Q: Are phytoestrogens a possible cause of this phenomenon?
A: We think so, and we have data to support it! At the molecular level we know southern white rhinos are sensitive to phytoestrogens. We also know that many zoo diets contain phytoestrogens. However, we have not and likely cannot conduct the types of cause- and-effect experiments that could prove it, because that would require having many groups of rhinos eating diets with different levels of phytoestrogens and following reproductive success for multiple generations.

Q: Are there any dietary differences between institutions that have breeding success and those that do not?
A: Anecdotally, yes. At most institutions commercial pellets comprise a large proportion of diets, which we know contain high levels of phytoestrogens. At the four or five institutions that have the greatest captive-born female breeding success, diets appear to consist of mostly grass, and we are investigating to determine this for sure. We have not been able to detect phytoestrogens in grass samples from one of the more successful institutions. Interesting for sure, but not quite a smoking gun.

I hope you can appreciate what we’re up against. As we work toward a solution, we continue to find pieces of information that alone do not meet the burden of proof but together they continue to build a case for phytoestrogens causing reproductive harm in captive-born females. We still have a long way to go, but one day I am certain we will have an answer. In the meantime, come see Kayode and learn for yourself why his name means, “he brings joy.” While you are watching him, consider this additional piece of information that I neglected to mention. Kayode’s mother, Kacy, just so happens to have been born at one of the institutions that feed their rhinos primarily grass. Now THAT’s pretty interesting!

Christopher Tubbs, Ph.D., is a scientist in the Reproductive Physiology Division of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

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5

Phantom Condor Chick Appears

By
Michael Wallace
– February 18, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Birds, California Condors, Conservation, Projects in the Field
A young, unmarked California condor soars in the skies of Baja California, Mexico.

A young, unmarked California condor soars in the skies of Baja California, Mexico. Photo credit: Juan Vargas

In the spring of 2012, our newest wild California condor pair in Baja California, Mexico, identified as #361 and #373, continued to show signs that they were incubating an egg by being more aggressive to the other condors around the feeding site and by spending a lot of time in a remote area dotted by deep canyons and precipitous cliffs. Their GPS wing transmitters indicated a near-exact position of where the nest would be out in the wilderness by latitude and longitude readings. Plugging these coordinates into our handheld GPS, Program Field Manager Juan Vargas and I struck out in September 2012 to try to find the nest, knowing that it was about 15 miles (24 kilometers) out to the remote south of our condor field station.

We traveled light and fast but only made it three quarters of the way there after three days through rough terrain and vegetation. With dwindling food and clean water, we decided to head back. Also, the GPS maps indicated that the nest was very high in precipitous terrain, and we were not carrying sufficient ropes and equipment to deal with it safely. Within condor release programs in the United States, if the nests are too difficult to find or ascend to, scientists rely on waiting for the young to fledge and show up at feeding sites, where they can be trapped and tagged later. We decided to do the same, since verifying the young at the nest would be too costly in terms of helicopter time, which would be the only way we could safely access it.

The chick and its mother, #???

The chick and its tagged mother at rest.

The downside to this decision was that the chick would not be inoculated for West Nile virus and would run the risk of catching the disease if we could not administer the vaccine. From our field station, Catalina Porras and crew analyzed both radiotelemetry and GPS data and estimated that the chick probably fledged in October. Over the three months that followed, only the behavior of the parents at the feeding site and their movement patterns continued to give us hope that there was indeed a chick flying around in the backcountry. We continued to scan the skies for a “tagless” condor with a gray head.

Finally, on February 4, 2013, Juan and a crew member observed a juvenile condor showing behavior that stood out from the others. Further scrutiny revealed that the black-headed youngster had no tags. It was hard to keep the excitement contained as we realized that the phantom chick had survived! As the new chick becomes accustomed to the other wild condors and the feeding site over the next few months, we are hoping to trap it, administer the West Nile virus vaccine, and tag it with GPS transmitters so we can safely follow its progress.Three condor pairs are looking like they may produce young this season. With luck, we may find more dark-headed condor young in the skies over the Baja mountains next year as well.

Michael Wallace is a conservation program manager for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read his previous post, Releasing Condors: Not So Easy.

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34

What Might Monkeys Be Up To?

By
Chia Tan
– February 12, 2013Posted in: Animals and Plants, Apes and Monkeys, Conservation, Projects in the Field
The Guizhou snub-nosed monkey’s night life was a secret until recently.

The Guizhou snub-nosed monkey’s night life was a secret until recently.

February 10 marks the beginning of a new year, the Year of the Snake, according to the Chinese lunar calendar. I cannot help but reflect on what I have done in the past year and contemplate what I wish to accomplish in this new year.

Last year, my research project focused on an investigation of wild Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys in China using camera traps. This work was conducted in Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve (FNNR) in collaboration with the reserve’s administration. We set up a network of over 100 camera traps to monitor, in addition to the Guizhou snub-nosed monkey, many hard-to-see wildlife species in the reserve (see post Monkeys, Leopard Cats, and Bears, Oh My!,). Some of our unexpected captures were images of Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys moving about in the middle of the night (see article in Primates). Although these monkeys are considered daytime active species very much like humans, our camera-trap data provided unequivocal proof that they are routinely active after dark. What might the monkeys be up to?

Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys’ nocturnal habit, we believe, is motivated by the need to acquire as much food as possible. In other words, the monkeys are up at night because they are hungry. To some people, this discovery may seem like a non-discovery, but many great scientific discoveries are inherently simple, and they often start out with a simple observation, like the apple that fell on Newton’s head. But I digress, back to the monkeys.

An important outcome of our camera-trap study, besides showing the behavioral flexibility the monkeys have to cope with living in a highly seasonal environment, is the need for researchers to rethink methodological designs that minimize observer bias. If we habitually observe diurnal primates during the daytime we, of course, have data that only show them being active during the hours we observe them. Camera traps, therefore, are excellent devices to augment our data collection. And, because of the amount of photographs we have, you can count on me spending much of my time this year uncovering more secrets about the animals in Fanjingshan.

My research collaborators, from left: Duoying Cui (Beijing Zoo), Marco Gamba (University of Torino), me, Yeqin Yang (FNNR), and Kefeng Niu (FNNR)

My research collaborators, from left: Duoying Cui (Beijing Zoo), Marco Gamba (University of Torino), me, Yeqin Yang (FNNR), and Kefeng Niu (FNNR)

An intrinsic part of what I do as a scientist is to assist students with their professional development. Through mentorship of students, I help foster future colleagues and, in turn, expand my network of collaborators. This past year several of my students completed their research thesis, attained a higher degree, received scholarships, and/or launched new projects. James Dopp is a graduate of the University of Vermont who worked with me in Fanjingshan in 2010 through 2012. He has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to further sharpen his research skills in primate conservation in China.

Kefeng Niu, a resident biologist of FNNR, continued to benefit from my coaching. In August, he successfully delivered a paper in English at the International Primatological Society Congress. The Congress also provided Kefeng a chance to meet other professionals, among them, Dr. Marco Gamba, my Italian colleague from the University of Torino. I introduced Marco and his research on primate vocal communication to Kefeng. We later invited Marco to join us in Fanjingshan to resume our wonderful discussion about snub-nosed monkey biology with China’s renowned primate expert, Yeqin Yang (see post Saving Monkeys Takes a Team). And the rest, as they say, is history, because when Marco left Fanjingshan, he had already signed a five-year research agreement with the reserve administration and gained a prospective PhD student, Kefeng Niu. Mama mia!

Cameron makes her debut as “Yi Jie Jie”

Cameron makes her debut as “Yi Jie Jie”

Recently, my mentorship pool of students included a junior from High Tech High International. Her name is Cameron Ishee, and though only 16, she is well on her way to transforming how people perceive and treat animals. Because of Cameron’s ability to speak Chinese (Mandarin), I asked her to help me create a series of bilingual video lessons for the children in the Little Green Guards program in Guizhou (see post March of the Little Green Guards). Each episode stars Cameron as Yi Jie Jie (or Big Sister Yi) teaching an English alphabet letter and about half a dozen animal-related words associated with the featured letter. To make learning memorable and fun, we segue from the classroom lessons into video segments of our Zoo and Safari Park animals. In doing so, we are achieving several objectives: introducing a world-class animal collection to underprivileged children who would otherwise never have the opportunity to travel to San Diego, and enhancing the school curriculum by teaching these children a highly valued foreign language that only children living in the more affluent urban areas of China are learning.

Our pilot episode is almost complete. Cameron and I will continue making more episodes this year. Just a little spoiler alert here, snake will be featured in our upcoming episode: “S is for Snake.”

Chia Tan is a scientist in the Behavioral Biology Division with the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

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0

No Scientist is an Island

By
Nicole Ravida
– February 11, 2013Posted in: Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo
Two domestic cat blastocysts made in our lab using IVM, IVF, and embryo culture.

Two domestic cat blastocysts made in our lab using IVM, IVF, and embryo culture.

Today I did an experiment, but it did not involve microscopes or incubators. I Googled the word “scientist” and clicked on the tab for images. What came up was no surprise to me. There were many cartoon images of Einstein-like men in white lab coats, holding bubbling potions, with crazy looks on their faces. However, if you walked through the halls of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, you would not find this stereotypic image reflected in any of our labs. Our staff is diverse in age, gender, and background, and our safety team generally frowns on bubbling potions in the lab. The biggest myth that I would like to dispel is the notion that scientists work alone.

Every scientist has a community, which exists in many different forms. A scientist may work in a laboratory or on a field research project with coworkers who are collaborating on the same project in the same location, such as my coworker Carly and I, who are working to improve oocyte (egg) and sperm freezing techniques in a variety of species. Some scientists may be the sole person working on a project in their lab, such as studying the genetic diversity of condors, but have scientific partners across the country working on that same project with whom they can discuss their ideas. In rare cases, a scientist may be the only researcher working on a novel project, such as finding a new virus that causes disease in rare or endangered animals. These scientists are not alone either, because they have fellow scientific community members who will review their work and findings and give them feedback. No scientist is an island.

Domestic cat sperm used in IVF.

Domestic cat sperm used in IVF.

Working in the conservation research community can sometimes make you feel like you are on a small island with few people to reach out to. A small percentage of reproduction research is done on exotic animals. So when we found an opportunity to learn from and exchange ideas with another research group that is working toward the same goal as we are, we jumped on it. For the past four years, our lab has been working to improve our feline oocyte in-vitro maturation (IVM), in-vitro fertilization (IVF), and embryo culture methods. We discovered our greatest results came from methods adapted from a published paper that came out of the Reproductive Biology Laboratory at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species (ACRES).

Published, peer-reviewed papers are fabulous for communicating advances in research to the scientific community. But many times there are little details in the methods that don’t always make it into the papers yet make all of the difference. This is why we decided to reach out to Dr. C. Earle Pope and Dr. Martha Gomez of ACRES to ask if we could come visit their lab and learn the techniques they use to achieve success with feline IVM, IVF, and embryo culture.

Some of our Institute's staff.

Some of our Institute’s staff.

The ACRES staff opened their doors to us for four days and gave us unimpeded access to all of their media formulations, processing techniques, surgical methods, and, best of all, their thoughts and theories. In return, we shared some of the techniques we developed for efficiently processing large batches of tissues we collect to give them ideas for streamlining their process. Any scientist working for a biotech company or university might find this hard to believe. Research can be a competitive atmosphere, where new innovations lead to patents, which lead to big paydays. In the conservation research field, one of the main goals is to help endangered species reproduce. There is little to be gained by keeping discoveries to oneself. The biggest losers end up being the animals.

This is why we were so very thankful that the staff at ACRES subscribes to the same idea that no scientist is an island. We have already made some changes to the methods we use in our lab due to the information we learned and continue to have an open channel of communication with them.

Nicole Ravida is a research coordinator for the Reproductive Physiology Division of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Sensitive Subjects are My Job.

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1

Citizen Science

By
Susanne Marczak
– January 31, 2013Posted in: Animal Stories, Animals and Plants, Conservation, Conservation at the Zoo
Zoo Corps volunteers helped the Institute’s Applied Plant Ecology Division plant cactus to restore coastal sage scrub environment.

Zoo Corps volunteers helped the Institute’s Applied Plant Ecology Division plant cactus to restore coastal sage scrub environment.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend one of the first meetings of the newly formed San Diego Citizen Science Network. A multitude of stakeholders attended including educators, university graduate students, local government officials, and researchers from the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research (“the Institute”). It was very exciting to be with people from so many different backgrounds and institutions who all shared the same vision: to increase and streamline the potential for citizen science opportunities throughout San Diego County.

The term “citizen science” is a reference to public engagement opportunities in scientific investigations. Even though participants often have limited or no scientific background, they can still play a crucial role in asking questions, collecting data, and interpreting results that support meaningful scientific research. These types of programs provide an opportunity to increase public scientific literacy and involve individuals in various components of the scientific process. This can prove especially useful for answering scientific questions that require data to be gathered or processed over long periods of time and large geographic areas.

Citizen science is an extremely vital component of the work that we do here at the Institute. Without our many passionate volunteers who assist with data collection and entry, we would not be able to conduct research at the same magnitude that we currently realize. Improvements in technology (and its associated decreasing costs) have led to an exponential increase in the amount of data we are able to collect (a single camera trap can generate thousands of images a week!). Trained volunteers able to identify species and individual animals in photos have substantially helped our efforts to evaluate the survival and overall success of translocated squirrels and to monitor western burrowing owl nests. Volunteers also participate in surveys for coastal cactus wrens, observe giant panda behavior, help with planting of cacti to restore local habitat, and help us collect feedback from guests about their experiences at the Zoo and Safari Park.

Gibbon

Gibbon

The acoustic structure of a gibbon “duet call” becomes longer and more complex over time. Recordings made by guests can provide researchers with a better understanding of how and why these changes occur and how they can be studied to estimate population numbers in the wild:

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Public participation in scientific data collection can also serve to enhance the guest experience at our facilities where guests can have opportunities to engage and connect with wildlife in novel ways. For example, the Institute’s Behavioral Biology Division plans to create a smartphone/tablet application that will allow guests to collect valuable biological data on the animals they are enjoying while visiting the Zoo or Safari Park. Such observations (including both behavior and associated vocalizations) can provide us with a greater understanding of how animals utilize their enclosures and how individuals interact with each other. This level of interaction also gives the guest the chance to be a direct participant in the scientific process and learn more about how we collect and use data.

The creation of this local citizen science network is really exciting. It will serve as a great tool to bring researchers, educators, and the general public together—a sort of match-making service for individuals and organizations wanting to be involved. This kind of collaboration allows researchers to help educators develop scientifically rigorous protocols for data collection and serve as mentors for students. Participating land managers and institutions can also provide property access, different groups can collect data for the same project across a large landscape over multiple years, and all teams collectively build an essential dataset to answer a research question.

Everyday people across the world help collect scientific data, from studies in museums where individuals are examining specimens that have been in storage for years to activities in cities and parks where counting and identifying birds provides much-needed data on avian populations. People are looking in their own backyards and recording when flowers bloom and when leaves fall to contribute to our understanding of changing climates and environments. There are so many ways to get involved as a citizen scientist, and I encourage you to participate in any way you can. As a researcher here at the Institute, I can truly testify to the invaluable contributions that volunteers make to our projects. Get involved as a volunteer with San Diego Zoo Global or another organization that interests you and begin your own adventure as a citizen scientist!

Susanne Marczak is a research technician with the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Muddy Days in the Soil Lab.

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