We were delighted to meet with Dr. Chris Tubbs, an endocrinologist at CRES whose primary focus is pregnancy testing in rhinos. We learned that the best way to determine whether or not a rhino is pregnant is by running tests on its blood, urine, or feces to quantify the amount of progesterone in its body. Dr. Tubbs showed us how it’s done and then gave us the opportunity to experience the process of analyzing hormone levels for ourselves.

Using pipettes to aliquot enzymes into the test tubes made us feel like real scientists. An EIA (Enzyme Immuno Assay) measures changes in color and is used to quantify the amount of hormone in a sample. This process can sometimes take a couple of days but is a very important aspect of the scientists’ work in the Reproductive Physiology division at CRES.

In the Reproductive Physiology division, sperm is saved and stored in the Frozen Zoo where it can later be used for research or for artificial insemination. Sperm can be obtained when an animal is neutered or after an animal has died. Nicole, Tom, and Barbara, scientists at CRES, taught us how to count sperm, determine if it is alive or dead, and also how different methods are used to perform these tasks. Counting sperm through a microscope proved to be a little challenging because they are constantly moving around the slide! For this reason, specialized machinery that utilizes florescent light and dye labels is often used to count sperm cells. The machine was much faster and more accurate than our attempts to count the sperm with the naked eye.

Nina, Photography Team

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