Genetics analysis has become more important in the world of conservation. Based on genetic comparisons of individual lorises that looked different, a new species, the Bengal loris, was recently named because it was different enough genetically from other slow lorises. Lena, the loris shown here, came to the Zoo in the 1980s and is one of the oldest animals in the population.

The Zoo InternQuest participants take a parting shot, posing in front of the building that was the original home of the Zoo’s hospital and then became the CRES facility. In 2004, the new state-of-the-art Beckman Center for Conservation Research was completed at the Wild Animal Park campus.

Zoos have a very complex system for keeping captive animal populations diverse and viable. All species of animals that are kept in captivity have a Species Survival Plan. The Species Survival Plan is a very specific set of guidelines to dictate how a certain animal population is going to be managed for optimal conservation of that species. For each population, there is a species coordinator, who comes up with a population management plan. Although all of the zoos in the United States are encouraged to follow this plan, participation is voluntary. The job of the species coordinator is to determine which animals should be allowed to breed. The family tree of each species is mapped out so that animal managers can best pair prospective mates together without hurting the genetic diversity of the population in captivity. The decisions of the species coordinator are made based on what is in the best interest of the animal population so that inbreeding (the mating of family members, which often leads to genetic disabilities) will not occur. Helena Fitch-Snyder, who helped us understand the inner workings of cooperative conservation, is the species coordinator for the captive loris populations.

Zoos are justifiably very proud of their animal collections. Some animals draw large crowds and have many fans. These so-called “charismatic megavertebrates” (such as tigers, orangutans, and gorillas) are the rock stars of the zoological world. Let’s say a zoo in a state far, far away had a very prized rhinoceros. People from all over flocked to see this one rhino. However, this rhino is the perfect match for a lovely bachelorette rhino in California. They are not related and would thus create more genetic diversity in the rhino species. The species coordinator for that rhino species decides that the rhino from far away would have to move to California to mate in the new spacious rhino exhibit. Although the far-away zoo might lose an important source of revenue, they would be “taking one for the team” to help preserve the rhino species. Conservation is a cooperative effort and we must all make sacrifices to be successful.

-Sarah, Real World Team

Matchmaking in Monkey Heaven!
It was in the 20th century that zoos realized it was vital to compile records of the species in their care into a master database. Having this information available to all institutions would make it easier to accomplish tasks such as finding the most suitable mate for an eligible gorilla. Over the past 20 years, the International Species Inventory System (ISIS) has successfully held animal records of all North American institutions. To keep this information current, Species Survival Plan coordinators maintain studbooks filled with records of necessary data about the members of the captive populations of the species they are in charge of. Helena Fitch-Snyder is the species coordinator for all loris species in captivity in zoos. Lorises are prosimians, the most primitive group of primates.

As a species coordinator, Ms. Fitch-Snyder has helped write long-term Species Survival Plans, which address various aspects of focal species, such as number of births, pedigree, which animals should be paired for breeding, and transfer of animals between partner institutions. These plans involve numerous zoos that work together to manage the species according to the master plan.

Part detective, part mathemetician, part matchmaker, part diplomat, the job of a species coordinator has lots of elements. The most prominent part is deciding which animals within a species should be paired for breeding. Decisions are not based on what is best for one institution; instead, breeding pairs are determined by the numbers. Species coordinators meet with representatives from zoos that have the animals (in her case, the lorises) to make the necessary decisions of pairing animals for mating, and which animals will move to other zoos, based on the following criteria: minimizing relatedness, keeping bloodlines equally represented, and breeding the rarest bloodlines. To address the issue of relatedness, a complex set of calculations is used to calculate mean kinship values; the values correspond to an individual’s relatedness to others within the captive population. A low mean kinship value means that the animal is a good candidate for breeding because their genes are not highly represented in the population. Pairing two animals with low mean kinship is the ideal. So that was the mathemetician part. The diplomat part of the job comes in when the SSP coordinator has to negotiate with the zoos about which animals are going to move. (See Sarah’s blog, above!)

Ms. Fitch-Snyder has la ongtime love of lorises. When she was a kid, she met someone who kept them as pets and even ended up with some of her own! (The laws for having this exotic species as a pet have long since changed.) Becoming a species coordinator for the lorises wasn’t a straight shot for her. She first went to Sacramento State University where she majored in nutrition. She worked in a variety of jobs not related to animals but found that her passion for observing animals, and specifically primates, was too important to ignore. She worked for four years on projects for Dr. Don Lindburg at the Zoological Society of San Diego and pursued her master’s degree in animal behavior at San Diego State University. Now a member of the Zoo’s Education Department, she maintains her position as the species coordinator and shares her life experience and broad base of knowledge with hopeful interns like us who want to follow our passion, too.

-Melissa, Animal Careers Team

Scientists Haven’t Discovered Everything Yet
According to Ms. Fitch-Snyder, gathering historical records about animals in captivity is an important part in starting a new Species Survival Plan. It is even important to know about the parentage and life history of animals that lived in zoos a hundred years ago. That’s because those animals from long ago could be the grandparents or great-grandparents of animals currently alive in zoos.

And, with the advances in genetics, it sometimes happens that a new species is “discovered” by looking at the genetics of animals and realizing that a group that we once thought were all the same are actually genetically different enough to be categorized as different species. This is what happened with the slow lorises, which originate from China and Vietnam. It turns out that there is more than one species of loris that looks like the slow loris. The Bengal loris is about the same size but has a beautiful set of dark rings around its eyes. Before the use of genetics, it was thought that this was just a color variation of the slow loris species.

Slow lorises have been kept in zoos for over a hundred years. However, pygmy lorises were not really not well known to western scientists until the late 20th century–we’re talking the 1980s! It’s exciting for scientists and the rest of us to learn more about new species. And being able to take good care of animals in zoos allows us to understand how we can protect them in the wild. Having slow lorises and pygmy lorises at the San Diego Zoo allowed animal scientists like Ms. Fitch-Snyder to use comparisons between the animals to build a good base of knowledge about these amazing little prosimians.

When it comes to conservation, it surprises me to find out that even today there are new mammal species discovered every year. Protecting the wild spaces and learning everything we can about animals is the best way for us humans to conserve the unbelievable variety of animals that share our planet.

-Marika, Conservation Team

Keepers have very busy schedules. Each day begins at six in the morning and lasts until two in the afternoon. You get a thirty-minute lunch break and two other fifteen-minute breaks throughout the day. The day begins with a meeting, a sort of briefing for the day’s tasks. Each department is notified about the major events going on in the Park that day, things like medical procedures or animal transfers, and they all collaborate on the best way to accomplish each goal. The keepers are divided into crews with trucks assigned to the field teams that are loaded up with all of their supplies for the day in the field exhibit. Each crew is in charge of a different section of the vast field enclosures or the Nairobi Village area, Heart of Africa, or Animal Care Center.

Every animal in the collection must be documented every day and the enclosures must be monitored for broken things and maintained for the health and well-being of the animals. The herds of animals are large in number and live in the huge enclosures at the Park. And the animals look a lot like one another. To be able to identify individual animals, their ears are notched at a very young age. It’s kind of like an ear piercing but little nicks are taken out at specific points in the ear using a visual code that is easy to learn and decipher from a distance. Also, after working in the fields for awhile, keepers recognize the animals that are usually together, which helps identify the animals.

Being a keeper requires a lot of physical work; there is a lot of shoveling and raking involved. You also must be able to lift heavy objects. Bails of hay are very heavy and loading them into a truck for animals in enclosures can be tough work. In addition to the physical part of the job, the keepers have records and notes they make in the “red books” on the animals as they work in the exhibits. Since the keepers don’t work seven days a week, they communicate with each other about the animals by using these notebooks.

When Ms. Pillsbury first began working at the Wild Animal Park most keeper positions were filled by men. She became an elephant keeper in 1979, prior to this it was unheard of for a woman to take care of elephants; it was considered “man’s work.” Through hard work, she showed she could care for and train every elephant, including the ones who participated in the shows at the Park. Over the years an increasing number of keeper jobs have been filled by women. It may be now that the percentages of men and women are even, or maybe the women have pulled ahead a little.

Keepers must be able to trust each other for help. When working in direct contact with animals you must always remember that no matter how cute or cuddly they appear, they are still wild animals. For this reason, the field keepers stay within close proximity of the truck and when they are performing certain tasks such as putting out food or anything else that would require them to turn their attention away from the animals and focus on the task at hand, they must be able to rely on their partner to watch their back. Though it is hard work and very demanding, being a keeper is a very rewarding job. You develop a relationship with the animals and the payoff each day is that you get to feed them, sometimes by hand. How many people can really say they are paid to feed a giraffe and rhino?

-Justin, Animal Careers Team and Chelsi, Real World Team

The Care and Feeding of Endangered Rhinos
It is exciting to view the animals at the Wild Animal Park from a distance in a tour vehicle circling the enclosures. It is another thing to drive through the enclosures and have the animals rub up against the truck that you are sitting in. As we sat crammed together on haystacks in the back of the keepers’ trucks, we got up close and personal with endangered white rhinos and giraffes. We also got a personal account of the important role of these animal keepers in the conservation plan for endangered species in their care.

Our trip began at the back gates of the Wild Animal Park. Torrey Pillsbury and Michelle Gaffney, our keepers-turned-guides for the day, took us on a journey in which we found out first hand that being an animal keeper involves being able to identify individual animals and get an accurate count of a bunch of animals that look almost exactly alike, every day. It also means that you care for, and care about, endangered species populations.

We all piled into the back of a truck and headed out into the field. As we passed a variety of Thompson’s and Roosevelt’s gazelles (which looked A LOT alike), Ms. Pillsbury pointed out a southern white rhino drinking water in the shade of a tree on a hill. This female, who was born at the Wild Animal Park over 20 years ago, has never given birth. Keepers and animal biologists from CRES have been puzzled by the fact that first generation (F1) female rhinos born in captivity do not reproduce. None of the F1 rhinos have produced offspring. Researchers are not sure if the problem is physiological, behavioral, or otherwise, so they are conducting a study to compare the ovaries of F1 females and wild-born females that have successfully reproduced. For the good of the rhino populations around the world in zoos and the wild, let’s hope the scientists, with the help of keepers caring for the precious critters, can solve the mystery! In the meantime, the field keepers take good care of these animals so that maybe, someday, they can produce healthy youngsters and continue to grow the population to a sustainable number.

-Keesha, Conservation Team

This rhino and her baby are wallowing in a mud hole on the East African plains at the Wild Animal Park.

The interns find it amusing that each species of animal gathers in cliques, reminiscent of high school life.

Carefully processed samples, like the rhinoceroses feces, are then further prepared. Vortexing and adding reactive chemicals to them are only a few of the steps required to obtain results. Research technicians like Ms. Pisacane and Ms. Sproul critically analyze the results through the use of computers, where they translate the data into graphs. At a minimum, this complicated process of acquiring hormone data takes two full days.

The Endocrinology Lab at the CRES facility is primarily enlisted to establish the time period when an animal can successfully conceive. Technicians analyze the progesterone levels of potentially pregnant and currently pregnant females to assess their condition.

Majoring in biology seems to be the way to become a research technician at CRES. Ms. Sproul and Ms. Pisacane had two very different paths for their education, but both enjoy applying to their lab work the skills they gained studying in various fields of biology, from marine biology to microbiology.

-Melissa, Animal Careers Team

Endocrinologists Uncover the Secret Story in Animal Hormones

Producing baby animals in captivity is harder than it may seem. And being an endocrinology technician can sometimes feel pretty far removed from saving species. Healthy baby animals are the product of their efforts, but after spending an afternoon in this lab, I think the many steps it takes to get there aren’t always that fun. In order to use hormones to detect potential problems or to diagnose pregnancy, you often have to obtain usable samples of urine, feces, and saliva.

Although you may not be able to directly save a species being an endocrinology technician, you are able to determine whether or not females are pregnant. It’s not as easy as training a panda to urinate on a pregnancy test stick! The creative solutions that the Endocrinology Lab has come up with eventually affect the rise and fall of the population of a species! Females that are already pregnant don’t want to be around males, and knowing about her state can help keepers know if the potentially dangerous male should be separated from a female. On the other hand, when testing for hormones that indicate ovulation, animal care people can put a receptive female with a willing male.

Using endocrinology, the growth and health of animals can be monitored, enabling veterinarians to treat ailments before they may get worse. As in human health, endocrinology in animals can give clues into the state of the animal’s well-being. And in the case of endangered animals, by diagnosing and treating one endangered rhino, they also impact generations to come, by keeping that animal in the gene pool and through the development of early detection and novel treatment that can be used to help other animals in the future.

-Marika, Conservation Team

Lauren, a Photo Team member, demonstrates the rhinoceros poop-sifting technique. This was done by dumping a freeze-dried sample into a mesh funnel and grinding it so that the powdered droppings, which contain hormones, fall through and the grass and other thick matter stay on top.

Marika and Keesha, conservation team members, are performing a tritiated radioimmunoassay to isolate the progesterone hormone, which helps the endocrinology team determine if an animal is pregnant.

As consumers of food products, the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park have the challenge of making conservation-minded choices, just like the rest of us consumers do. In purchasing whole fish for animals like the sea lions, that require fish in their diet, the Zoo tries to buy species that are not being overfished or caught using harmful fishing practices. Some of these “good fish” include trout, herring, and mackerel. Part of being a group of interns interested in conservation is to be informed consumers. The San Diego Zoo is a partner in the Seafood Watch Program that provides fish eaters like us with an easy list that tells you which fish are good choices, or fishes to avoid buying. Our intern boss, Kathy Myers, gave us “fish cards” which are little wallet-sized charts that list the fish on the Seafood Watch program and those that are okay to eat. You can learn more about this program and get your own Seafood Watch card by checking out this conservation issue page of the San Diego Zoo’s Web site.

-Keesha, Conservation Team

What’s on the Menu, Drs. Schlegel and Schmidt?
As an animal nutritionist you must be able to work with a wide variety of different foods. You must also be good with numbers; there is a lot of math involved in making the right mixtures of foods. Nutritionists work closely with many departments throughout the Zoological Society of San Diego, including the Horticulture Department, which grows some food for the animals, and the Curators Department, which provides information about the needs of each animal. Dr. Michael Schlegel has a bachelor’s degree in animal production from Penn State. He then got his master’s and Ph.D. in animal science at Michigan State University. He did most of his work on ruminant nutrition, primarily on beef cattle. He now works at the Zoo as an animal nutritionist, which requires knowledge of more than just what cows eat!

Dr. Schlegel is not a one-man show. The Nutritional Services Department includes an associate nutritionist, Dr. Debra Schmidt, as well as forage warehouse food preparers at the Zoo and Wild Animal Park. This team of people is responsible for ordering, selecting and sorting, and distributing the food to the animal keepers who prepare the diets and give the food to the animals. The nutritionists are challenged to monitor each animal’s diet to meet their specific needs, and there are over 400 species of animals at the Zoo alone. These two are responsible for the animals at both the Zoo and Wild Animal Park. It is their job to make sure that the animals in the collection are getting the proper nutrients to be able to breed, raise young, and lead a healthy life.

-Justin, Animal Careers Team

Did You Have Your High Calcium Insects this Morning?
My cats have had teeth problems since they were kittens. For the first couple of years, we took them to the vet every six months to have their teeth cleaned. Later, I tried to brush their teeth myself, and the scars on my arms will attest to the fact that they didn’t really like that very much. Then we stumbled upon a godsend at our vet’s office: my dad tripped over a bag of extra crunchy dental-care cat food, and when we inquired about it, we were ecstatic to hear that for a mere extra three dollars a bag, we might never have to brush our cats’ teeth again.

The nutritionists at the Zoo, Dr. Mark Schlegel and Dr. Debra Schmidt, have discovered a similar way of keeping the big cats’ teeth clean: once a week, the lions, tigers, and leopards (oh, my!) get to chow down on a raw cow femur bone. All of that gnawing scrapes the plaque off their teeth, and consequently, they get a beautiful, white smile (and as long as you don’t get too close to smell the cat breath, you’ll appreciate it). My housecats would probably prefer to use a beef bone to clean their teeth but, since my mom probably wouldn’t like bloodstains and bone fragments on the couch, I think my cats will just have to stick to kibble.

Besides bad teeth, there are many other health conditions keepers must look out for. Since the animals at the Zoo are not as active as they would be in the wild, they are susceptible to gaining weight. There are many parallels between the situation of zoo animals and the situations of Americans. Because Americans no longer work hard to get our food, we have grown inactive. I, for one, probably watch too much TV when I should be out on a run. If an animal is overweight, the Zoo nutritionists will develop a new diet for the animal. Maintaining the animals’ health through good diet is such an important part of the care of the exotic species that occupy the Zoo. The fact that the Zoo employs two full-time nutrition Ph.D.s to make sure the animals are eating well should be a clue to us. The animals have favorite foods, too, like crunchy, fatty mealworms and crickets, or corn on the cob, but since their diets are portioned out, they can’t overdo it on the animal equivalent of brownies and ice cream.

Since we live in a world where supermarkets and cars have taken over from farming, hunting, and walking, we human Americans must be mindful to stay active and healthy. If we don’t, we might have to have our mealworms taken away until we have slimmed down enough to treat ourselves.

- Sarah, Real World Team

Intern Melissa is standing in front of a stack of nutritionally complete feed. The San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park nutritionists buy many types of food: fish, fruit, meat, insects, vegetables, bones, and even dog and cat food.

Hay is more than just food for the hoofed stock; it is also used as bedding for the gorillas. It comes in three different types: grass hay, Bermuda, and alfalfa. Each variety contains different levels of proteins that help the animals stay healthy.

Jumping from large mammoths to small nematodes–that name calls to mind images of foul, creepy, and disgusting little worms that suck blood and thus live off a host as a parasite. Humans, with our cars, brains, and computers, are much more advanced, right? WRONG! Well, at least in the genetic sense. By sequencing the genomes of humans and nematodes, we have learned that we might not be as superior as we once thought. A genome is a complete representation of the entire DNA sequence of an organism. The entire nematode genome includes about 30,000 genes. Humans were originally thought to have 50,000 to 100,000 genes, but in reality, we have about 20,000. Furthermore, we do not know what 93 percent of our genes even do! I don’t know about you, but I just got a feeling of immense humility.

I have never liked parasites; ticks, fleas, lice, and nematodes have always made me cringe. Now, I look at them with more respect, for they likely have more genes than I do. Although I will probably never get over my feelings about blood-sucking creatures, I will do my best not to squash them when I meet them. Our meeting with Dr. Ryder has helped me realize that I am just one little part of a very complex and diverse world.

-Sarah, Real World Team

Are You Gel-ous of Us?
Dr. Oliver Ryder, division head and senior scientist in the Genetics Division at CRES, gave an in-depth analysis of the vast array of projects conducted by his genetics team. Marlys Houck and Leona Chemnick, two dedicated researchers of the Genetics Division, put us to work conducting gel electrophoresis in the well-equipped genetics lab. We pipetted DNA from a vial into a prepared agarose gel. The vials contained DNA from various species studied at CRES. After loading the wells with DNA, an electrical current was applied to the gel, driving the negatively charged pieces of DNA to the positive end of the electrode. After 20 minutes, we observed how the DNA had spread out from its origin, making a long, yellow line within the transparent gel. Jill Litschewski, a volunteer who recently completed her master’s degree, explained how larger pieces of DNA move more slowly through the gel, smaller ones go faster, creating DNA bands which cannot be seen with the naked eye. To see them, Ms. Litschewski placed the gel in a machine that emits UV light. She turned on the computer and, lo and behold, there were the DNA bands on the screen. Amazing! In the mere span of 40 minutes, we were able to view the DNA of animals from the Zoo and Wild Animal Park! This interactive activity gave us a better understanding of the daily work conducted by genetic researchers. We didn’t engage much in the analysis of these DNA bands but they did look different from one another, as you would expect a clouded leopard and a meerkat would be.

If you would like to be a geneticist, you could follow the path of Dr. Ryder, who received a bacholer’s degree at University of California, Riverside. He then went on to the University of California, San Diego, where he received his Ph.D. in biology. Now, Dr. Ryder is changing the genetic world one genome at a time!

-Melissa, Animal Careers Team

The Frozen Zoo: Too Cool for You

The Zoological Society of San Diego (ZSSD) has built a diverse collection of plants and animals over the years for visitors to see and appreciate. The primary goal that they have been working toward is to conserve and protect animals, plants, and their habitats. The main focus of the research arm of the ZSSD, however, is the conservation of endangered species. One way that the Genetics Division at CRES, Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, is attempting to do this is through the creation and ongoing maintenance of the “Frozen Zoo.”

A fascinating collection of hundreds of species, the Frozen Zoo at CRES is an irreplaceable compilation of years of work. Scientists have been collecting, growing, and storing cells of different species in the Frozen Zoo, and it is through this effort that they are attempting to conserve biodiversity. This Frozen Zoo contains viable cells, reproductive cells, and skin cells that can be used for artificial insemination, surrogacy, or even cloning. With about 8,200 samples in the Frozen Zoo, researchers can preserve gene pools within a species.

One endangered animal has already been cloned from the DNA present in the Frozen Zoo. A male banteng, which is still alive today, was cloned from another banteng that was born at the San Diego Zoo in 1974 and died in 1980. The cloned banteng is currently on exhibit at the Zoo. This was a breakthrough development in conservation genomics for the Genetics Division at CRES. Since one of their principal goals is to apply the study of genomics and how it contributes to the conservation of endangered species, the birth of a cloned animal from preserved cells is a promising sign. However, more studies still must be conducted in order to see if the banteng is able to reproduce and if its long-term health shows potential.

Sequencing genomes was merely a dream in the past, but now it generally takes researchers about three months to sequence an entire species’ genome. While it is important that we sequence our own genome to find out what our different genes are doing and how they relate to our evolution, it would be difficult to understand these different facets of genetics about ourselves if we had nothing to compare them to. Dr. Ryder explained to us that it is important to understand genetics so that it can benefit humans, but the conservation of species is something that scientists want to focus on more. They are already using genetics to save the nearly extinct ‘alala, or Hawaiian crow. The entire population of ‘alala is in captivity because every single one in the wild has been wiped out. Through genetic mapping, scientists discovered a genetic disorder that was decimating the crows. Scientists are also using genetic information to grow cells from the last female species of a local rainbow trout. All of these efforts are done in order to preserve species of animals that otherwise would now be extinct.

-Keesha, Conservation Team

DNA is inserted into agarose gel and then the scientists run an electric current through it. The electric current creates a charge, causing the DNA to migrate to the opposite end.

The white mass inside the tube is DNA that was duplicated from a California condor.