Smithsonian Science » mammals

Ugandan park rangers with cell phones may help mitigate next world influenza epidemic

John Barrat — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:16:13 +0000

When West Nile virus swept across the New York City region in 1999 and then, in subsequent years, across almost all of the continental United States, “people were finding dead crows and other birds all over the place,” says Peter Marra of the Migratory Bird Center at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “We didn’t see the actual virus moving across the landscape, but we did see the devastation it caused through the remains of birds.” The disease was passed from birds to humans primarily by the tiger mosquito.

Today, Marra is helping launch an Animal Mortality Monitoring Program (AMMP) in Africa sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development that will alert authorities to animal deaths—“mortality events”—that occur on a larger-than-normal scale. Known as AMMP, the network is intended to serve as an early warning system for emerging infectious diseases that can pass from animal populations into the human population. Recently, Marra and his collaborator Isabelle-Anne Bisson, a research associate at the Migratory Bird Center, took a few minutes to answer some questions about this new initiative.

Image right: A flag representing “56 dead rats” set out during an animal mortality monitoring training workshop for park staff at the Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area in Uganda.

Q: What is the aim of the animal mortality monitoring program in Africa?

A: Marra: In cases of zoonotic diseases—such as West Nile virus and Avian Influenza which each began in animals and then jumped to humans—an epidemic of human sickness usually occurs after there’s already been a noticeable sickness in animals. By having local people keeping an eye out for sick and dead animals we think we have the potential to get an early warning on emerging zoonotic pathogens before they move to the human population. We want to have some sort of surveillance mechanism out there that is looking for sick and dead animals that have fallen victim to an emerging disease. This way we may catch a disease before it becomes a human epidemic.

Image above: Isabelle-Anne Bisson conducts a workshop with park staff from Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area in Uganda. (All images courtesy Isabelle-Anne Bisson)

Q: Why Africa?

A: Marra: We are starting in Uganda because it, as well as other “hotspots” in Africa, tend to be places where you get a lot of zoonotic diseases occurring. In such areas there is a lot of mixing of things—people, domestic animals, wild animals—that don’t normally come together. People are hunting animals and eating wild game and there’s just a lot of human-animal interface.

Once a pathogen emerges and disease begins to appear in hosts, given how much globalization is taking place today and how much trade there is all over the planet, an epidemic can move today in ways that we never would have predicted. The tiger mosquito that may have brought West Nile Virus to North America could have easily been transported on planes. There’s a lot of illegal trade in animals and food that goes on too. Every time you move an animal, legally or illegally, you not only move the animal but also move what is inside the animal—including pathogens and parasites. There are a lot of different factors that determine whether or not and how a pathogen can move.

Image right: A park staff member finds the first flag set out by AMMP staff.

Q: How is the AMMP network being launched?

A: Bisson: In April 2011 we launched the first pilot project in the Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area with the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Some 50 Nokia mobile phones were deployed. We started with an intensive month-long training program, which included several workshops where park staff learned how to use the phones and the mobile data collection application EpiSurveyor. The phone acts as a small mobile computer where staff can enter animal mortality events using EpiSurveyor while on field patrols.

We next used “mock” dead animals by printing yellow flagging tapes that contained project logos and information the staff needed to enter once they found a flag. For example, a flag might say “56 dead rats.” We distributed more than 100 of these flags across the park tied to trees and recorded the GPS data for each flag.

Image left: During a training session, park staff in Uganda learn to capture data from a flag representing “mock” dead animals on a Nokia cell phone.

When park staff found a flag, they entered its data into the cell phone and the phone also captured the flag’s GPS position. The data is sent to a central server via cellular networks and anyone with a computer, Internet connection and access to the account can view the data in real time.

Q. How did the park staff do finding the flags?

A: Bisson: From May to August park staff looked for the flags while on patrol and entered the data for the flags they found. From August to September we returned to Uganda to evaluate the training and practice and speak to park staff for feedback.

We heard a lot of stories about taking hours to find a single flag and their frustrations with the network, but all-in-all the feedback was positive—they love the phones and they love EpiSurveyor. One quarter of the flags were recovered of which 65 percent were entered correctly without missing data. Some flags were eaten by ants, others were destroyed by elephants, some disappeared mysteriously while a few had faded to a pale, imperceptible yellow.

All-in-all the workshops exceeded our expectations. Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area staff are now ready to monitor real animal deaths and we plan to fully integrate the program into existing Uganda Wildlife Authority systems at the end of June 2012. We are also working on the development of a custom mobile phone data form application with a local company MindAfrica.

Image above: Uganda Wildlife Authority staff celebrate following the successful completion of the AMMP workshop.

Q: What follows when a real mortality event is reported?

A: Marra: Another main AAMP partner is RESPOND, a project that links schools of public health and veterinary medicine in Africa with institutions in the United States to help strengthen their ability to identify and respond to outbreaks. Once a mortality event occurs an animal pathologist will come to the scene, someone say from the School of Veterinary Medicine at Makerere University in Uganda, and take samples of animal tissues and transport them to a lab for analysis.

These projects are part of a larger Emerging Pandemic Threats program overseen by USAID, which includes PREDICT, a program focused on responding to, identifying, preventing and preparing for emerging pandemic diseases.

Q. Other than national park staff what other groups will you be working with to establish an AMMP network?

A. Marra: Our goal now is to expand the program to people in the agricultural sector in Uganda—people with large and small farms, say down to only one cattle herd.

But on a larger scale, it is basically a sound idea to keep track of all animal mortality, period. AMMP is focused on emerging infectious diseases, but I have had a long-time interest in developing a central database for keeping track of and quantifying animal mortality. We don’t have anyone compiling these sort of data today…say how many birds and what species were killed by airplanes, how many birds and what species are killed by wind turbines…. There are all sorts of ways animal mortality data can be analyzed and actions we can take to minimize the impacts on birds and other animals and, thus, minimize the impacts on humans. Many places in the world are prime areas for a dead animal surveillance networks.

VIDEO: Meet our Scientist Rachel Page. She studies frog-eating bats, and other animals, in Panama

John Barrat — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:33:40 +0000

Members of small monkey groups more likely to fight, researchers find

John Barrat — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:13:54 +0000

Small monkey groups may win territorial disputes against larger groups because some members of the larger, invading groups avoid aggressive encounters. In a new report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Margaret Crofoot and Ian Gilby of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology show that individual monkeys that don’t participate in conflicts prevent large groups from achieving their competitive potential.

Image above: Is this monkey a wimp? A new study by Margaret Crofoot and Ian Gilby carried out at a research station run by the Smithsonian on an island in the Panama Canal shows that the answer may depend on the size of the group it belongs to. (Photo by Marcos Guerra)

The authors used recorded vocalizations to simulate territorial invasions into the ranges of wild white-faced capuchin monkey groups at the Smithsonian reasearch station on Barro Colorado Island in Panama. Monkeys responded more vigorously to territorial challenges near the center of their territories and were more likely to flee in encounters near the borders.

Defection by members of larger groups was more common than defection by members of smaller groups. Groups that outnumbered their opponents could convert their numerical superiority to a competitive advantage when defending the center of their own range against neighboring intruders, but failed to do so when they attempted to invade the ranges of their neighbors, because more individuals in large groups chose not to participate. According to the authors, these behavior patterns even the balance of power among groups and create a ‘home-field advantage’ which may explain how large and small groups are able to coexist.

First Eld’s deer born from in vitro fertilization with help of Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists

John Barrat — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:20:58 +0000

Nearly 20 years after the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute became the first to produce an Eld’s deer fawn through artificial insemination, SCBI scientists have now contributed to the birth of the first Eld’s deer via in vitro fertilization. The researchers collected eggs, inseminated them in vitro with thawed semen to produce embryos and transferred the embryos to a surrogate mother. A resulting fawn was born Oct. 17 at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand.

“This gives us another important tool to help maintain genetic diversity among Eld’s deer populations under human care,” said Pierre Comizzoli, a reproductive physiologist at SCBI’s Center for Species Survival. Comizzoli oversaw the surgical procedures (laparoscopy) that resulted in the fawn and has helped train researchers in Thailand to perform in vitro fertilization. “Maintaining the genetic diversity of the population under human care is important to build up a healthy and sustainable population of animals that can be released into the wild.”

SCBI has a long history of training reproductive researchers and veterinarians working with Eld’s deer and developing scientific innovations to help conserve the species, which is considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are less than 1,500 animals left in the wild as the result of habitat loss and hunting. Thailand’s Zoological Park Organization, which announced the news of the Eld’s deer fawn in a ceremony at Khao Kheow Open Zoo today, maintains a successful Eld’s deer captive breeding and reintroduction program. ZPO has worked with SCBI and AgResearch of New Zealand on in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer techniques for several years. Two Eld’s deer fawns were born through this method in 2010, but both died within 24 hours of their birth. This year’s successful birth was the result of one of eight embryo transfers performed in February 2011.

Details of ancient shark attack preserved in fossil whale bone

John Barrat — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:52:52 +0000

A fragment of whale rib found in a North Carolina strip mine is offering scientists a rare glimpse at the interactions between prehistoric sharks and whales some 3- to 4-million years ago during the Pliocene.

Image right: Whale bone fossil showing the three tooth marks from a shark. Click photos to enlarge. (Photo by Stephen Godfrey)

Three tooth marks on the rib indicate the whale was once severely bitten by a strong-jawed animal. Judging by the 6 centimeter (2.4 inch) spacing between tooth marks, scientists believe the attacker was a mega toothed shark Carcharocles megalodon, or perhaps another species of large shark which was alive at that time. The whale appears to have been an ancestor of a great blue or humpback.

“One certainly doesn’t expect to find evidence of animal behavior preserved in the fossil record, but this fossil shows just that, a failed predation,” explains Stephen Godfrey, paleontologist at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Md. and a Smithsonian research collaborator, who discovered the fossil. “The shark may have gone away with a mouthful, but it didn’t kill the whale”

Image left: This illustration shows one plausible way, and the most likely, in which the three calluses preserved on the whale rib came about: a bite from one of the large Pliocene sharks with which these huge baleen whales had to contend. (Illustration by Timothy Scheirer © CMM; used with permission)

Scientists know the whale survived because “most of the fossil fragment is covered with a type of bone known as woven bone, which forms rapidly in response to localized infection,” explains Don Ortner, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and authority on the effect of disorders on skeletal tissue. “Biomechanically woven bone is not very strong. The body eventually remodels it into compact bone, but it takes time.” CT scans reveal evidence of inflammation in the bone marrow consistent with infection.

The presence of the woven bone indicates the healing was incomplete and the whale died, the scientists estimate, between two and 6 weeks after the attack. The whale’s death may have been unrelated to its infection and injury, Ortner says. “We don’t know why it died.”

Based on the curvature of the shark’s jaw, as indicated by the arc of the impressions of its teeth, the scientists believe the shark was relatively small, between 4- and 8-meters (13-20 feet) long.

In the realm of paleontology, “only a handful of fossils show these kinds of interactions,” Godfrey explains. “There are lots of bite marks on fossils showing where the animal died and its carcass was scavenged. This fossil is one of a very few examples that shows a trauma clearly attributed to another animal, yet also shows the victim survived the event.”

“Bone Reactions on a Pliocene Cetacean Rib Indicate Short-Term Survival of Predation Event” was published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology and is co-authored by Robert Kallal and Stephen Godfrey of the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Md., and Donald Ortner of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Ancient whales

John Barrat — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:59:26 +0000

This illustration by Carl Buell depicts Ocucajea picklingi (center) and Supayacetus muizoni (bottom), two ancient whales that lived off the Peruvian coast during the Eocene, between 56-34 million years ago. At top is an unnamed whale and the fossil penguin Perudyptes devriesi. Nicholas Pyenson, paleobiologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, helped discover fossils of these whales in Peru’s Pisco Basin. Read his account of the discovery on this Ocean Portal blog post.

New genetic evidence confirms coyote migration route to Virginia and hybridization with wolves

John Barrat — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:37:08 +0000

Changes in North American ecosystems over the past 150 years have caused coyotes to move from their native habitats in the plains and southwestern deserts of North America to habitats throughout the United States. In a new study, published Oct. 17 in the Journal of Mammalogy, researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics used DNA from coyote scat (feces) to trace the route that led some of the animals to colonize in Northern Virginia. The researchers also confirmed that, along the way, the coyotes interbred with the native Great Lakes wolves.

Image left: Coyote (Rebecca Richardson)

According to the study, coyotes migrated eastward via two main routes—one that went through the northern United States, and one that went through the south. Using DNA samples, the researchers found that Virginian coyotes were most closely related to coyote populations in western New York and Pennsylvania. It appears the northern trekkers eventually encountered the Great Lakes wolves and interbred before converging again on the East Coast. They then gradually headed south along the Appalachian Mountains toward what is considered the Mid-Atlantic region, to an area centered around Virginia.

“The Mid-Atlantic region is a particularly interesting place because it appears to mark a convergence in northern and southern waves of coyote expansion,” said Christine Bozarth, an SCBI research fellow and lead author on the paper. “I like to call it the Mid-Atlantic melting pot.”

Bozarth and her colleagues collected scat samples in Northern Virginia from local coyote populations. They were then able to extract DNA from the intestinal cells in the scat and compare it to the DNA from preserved historic wolf specimens that had lived in the Great Lakes region before coyotes colonized the area. They shared some of the same genes, supporting the hybridization theory. Hybridization between canid species usually occurs when one species is rare. Those individuals may have trouble finding mates and therefore breed instead with closely related species.

“This does not mean that we have massive, wolf-like coyotes roaming around here in Virginia,” Bozarth said. “Coyotes with wolf ancestry have differently shaped jaws, which may allow them to fill different ecological niches. They tend to hunt small prey and scavenge large game, so hybrid coyotes might be helpful in controlling the overly abundant deer population.”

Image right: Camera trap photo of a coyote taken Feb. 15, 2008 at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. (Courtesy of Quantico Fish and Wildlife Office)

While coyote populations have been expanding, wolf populations have become endangered. Hybridization with coyotes is now a major threat to the recovery of wolves.

“For the past decade, our lab has developed and used noninvasive techniques to monitor and survey rare and endangered species in various regions of the world and in this study, we were able to show that noninvasive techniques can also be an effective tool for tracking the origins and movement patterns of this elusive canid,” Jesús Maldonado, SCBI research geneticist and paper co-author. “The admixed coyotes have also been found further south, into North Carolina, which brings the hybridized coyote into the range of the critically endangered red wolf, further complicating the issue.”

The study’s authors from SCBI are Bozarth, Maldonado and Frank Hailer (now a postdoctoral researcher at the Biodiversity and Climate Research Center in Frankfurt, Germany). Bozarth is currently an assistant professor in the science, technology and business division at Northern Virginia Community College. The additional authors are Larry Rockwood and Cody Edwards from the department of environmental science and policy at George Mason University.

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute plays a key role in the Smithsonian’s global efforts to understand and conserve species and train future generations of conservationists. Headquartered in Front Royal, Va., SCBI facilitates and promotes research programs based at Front Royal, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and at field research stations and training sites worldwide.

Lion cub summer school: Instead of learning their ABCs, the National Zoo’s lion cubs are learning behaviors that will help animal care staff evaluate their health.

John Barrat — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:44:51 +0000

School's nearly back in session, but the seven young lions at the Smithsonian's National Zoo have been working hard through the summer months! Instead of learning their ABCs, they're learning behaviors that help animal care staff evaluate their health, including opening their mouth, showing their paws, getting up on a bench and laying down in practice to receive a vaccination. We've been tracking their achievements—and adorable blunders—on camera. They're certainly earning their meatballs and we think you'll be impressed by their progress. According to their teachers, keepers Rebecca Stites and Kristen Clark, all seven lions earn the same grade for effort: A+ Related posts:

Remarkable video shows Kandula, an 8-year-old Asian elephant, demonstrating insightful problem solving by retrieving a cube to reach high fruit

John Barrat — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:42:41 +0000

nsightful Problem Solving in an Asian Elephant. Kandula, an 8-year old Asian elephant at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, demonstrates insightful problem solving by positioning a large cube under a treat that is too high for him to reach. By standing on the tire he can reach the food. From the scientific paper “Insightful Problem Thinking in an Asian Elephant,” published Aug. 18, 2011 in the journal PLoS ONE.

A first: National Zoo elephant shows insightful problem solving

John Barrat — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:11:26 +0000

Kandula, an 8-year-old male Asian elephant at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, recently demonstrated to researchers for the first time that elephants are capable of insightful problem solving. During a series of experiments in which food was hung over Kandula’s head at a level just above his reach, the elephant seemed to experience an “aha” moment of insightful thinking. Sponatneously, he retrieved a large cube from another area in his enclosure, positioned it beneath the hanging food and stood on it with his two front feet. The added elevation allowed Kandula to grab and eat the food.

Image left: Kandula standing on a cube to reach food high above his head.

Kandula’s actions are “evidence that an elephant is capable of insightful problem solving through tool use,” the experiment’s investigators write in a scientific paper just published in the journal PLoS ONE. “Evidence for this ability is indicated by the suddenness of Kandula’s problem solving behavior without evidence of prior trial and error learning.”

The following day Kandula used the cube to again grab food high above his head, as well as explore objects that were previously out of reach in his enclosure. In later experiments the elephant showed the ability to generalize tool use by moving a different object, a large tractor tire, to the spot under the food and stand on it to reach the food.

Video: Kandula uses a cube to reach high-hanging fruit.

Three of the five co-authors of the study, “Insightful Problem Solving in an Asian Elephant,” include National Zoo elephant keeper Marie Galloway; National Zoo curator of elephants, Tony Barthel; and National Zoo associate director for Animal Care Sciences, Don Moore.

The paper’s primary author is Preston Foerder, Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience Program, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. The paper’s senior author is Dr. Diana Reiss, professor, Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience Program, The Graduate Center; Department of Psychology, Hunter College, The City University of New York; Smithsonian research associate.

Traditionally, elephants have performed poorly in spontaneous or insightful problem-solving tasks despite their large complex brains and that they exhibit complex social behavior and show a facility with tools, the researchers say. These previous tasks, however, may have failed to guage the depth of the elephant’s mind in that they required the animals to hold tools, such as sticks, in their trunks. Elephants use tools held in their trunks primarily for skin care, not to forage for food.

Video: Kandula uses a tractor tire to reach the high fruit.

In light of Kandula’s recent behavior with the cube, researchers are reassessing these former experiments. “We believe that the problem in previous studies has been in treating the elephant trunk as a grasping appendage analogous to a primate hand,” they write. “Although the trunk is a highly manipulable appendage, in food foraging its function as a sensory organ may take precedence.” When grasping a stick, the tip of the elephant’s trunk “is curled backwards and may be closed, prohibiting olifactory and tactile feedback.” This may prevent the elephant from using trunk-held-tools in foraging for food.

Although the specific cognitive processes underlying Kandula’s behavior remains in question, “this study demonstrates that elephants are capable of insightful problem solving,” the researchers write. “When given the proper circumstances, elephants, like humans, and several other species, can demonstrate ‘aha’ moments.”