Conservation Stories for the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo Mobile App for Smartphones

Conservation Stories for the Smithsonian Institution’s
       National Zoo Mobile App for Smartphones

CHEETAHS

It’s the fastest animal on land, with a running speed of up to 65 miles per hour.
But in recent years, the number of cheetahs in the wild has been dropping fast
too, with only an estimated 7,500 to 10,000 left.

In new research combining knowledge of both cheetah behavior and
reproductive physiology—much of it pioneered at the National Zoo—biologists
have been working to boost the captive birth rate of these incredible cats without
removing any from the wild. Despite what are cheetahs’ notorious problems
breeding in captivity, biologists have begun devising ingenious solutions. In one
case, a captive cheetah mother had birthed a singleton cub and, as is common,
abandoned it for lack of milk. Zoo staff hand-reared the cub, then presented it
along with an unrelated cub to the recalcitrant mom—who soon was nursing both
cubs as a pair.

In another case, researchers concluded that the traditional pattern of trying to
determine when and with whom female cheetahs should breed just wasn’t
working. When they began to truly attend to her signals, they realized that even
when in estrus, she decided when she would enter the males’ territory and how
long she’d wait for them. When the researchers finally discovered that her action
of rolling on the ground was a sign of possible interest in the male, they had only
to distinguish when that rolling signified a true interest and when it was her
attempt to scratch an itching back. Once that was determined, they were able to
set the stage for more successful breeding.

Because seeing more cheetahs at zoos educates people about the plight of
these animals’ wild brethren, breeding research is doing as much to save
cheetahs in the wild as it does those in captivity.

GIANT PANDAS

The giant panda is probably the most high-profile endangered species on earth.
Less than 1,600 remain in the wild, in a few mountain forests in central China.
Because the female produces young every other year, she can successfully raise
only five to eight cubs in her lifetime. This hinders the giant panda population
from recovering quickly from illegal hunting, habitat loss, and other human-
related causes of mortality.

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This more-popular-than-the-average bear is also one of the most highly studied
of endangered species. The National Zoo’s two giant pandas, female Mei Xiang
and male Tian Tian, are international celebrities whose every sexual interaction
is minutely observed and recorded as the focus of an ambitious American-
Chinese research, conservation, and breeding program designed to preserve the
species. In late April 2012, the National Zoo collaborated with the China
Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda to perform two artificial
inseminations of Mei Xiang. It was the culmination of years of intense research
on the female giant panda’s reproductive system. Yet, amazingly, little had been
studied of the male giant panda’s reproductive life.

That changed in April 2012 with the publication of two studies of eight male giant
pandas by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, which found that, like
female pandas, male pandas experience reproductive seasonality—but very
differently. While females ovulate only once a year and have a window of only
two to three days during which they can conceive, male sperm production begins
three to five months before the female even enters estrus—likely ensuring there’s
enough material for the brief and unpredictable magic moment.

Other recent studies have shown there’s still much to learn about the giant
panda. Every new discovery helps scientists in their battle to save this species.

CLOUDED LEOPARDS

Clouded leopards live in the wild throughout southeast Asia, but active poaching,
rampant habitat loss, and fragmentation are decimating their numbers.
Unfortunately this International Union for Conservation of Nature–designated
vulnerable species has also struggled to survive in captivity, where male
aggression, decreased breeding activity between paired animals, and high cub
mortality have taken a toll. Perhaps due to the cat’s extremely shy and elusive
nature, zoos until recently lacked enough knowledge to successfully address
these threats.

Thankfully, exciting breakthroughs by researchers who’ve discerned what these
animals want and need in their environment have recently “catapulted” the
science forward, providing real hope for the future. Developing from the National
Zoo’s clouded leopard conservation and research efforts begun in 1978,
Smithsonian programs both in the U.S. and in Thailand are seeing some
phenomenal recent results in breeding.

At the zoo’s new facilities in Fort Royal, Virginia, biologists are combining three
strategies: human hand-rearing of the cubs from birth, matching leopards with a
mate before the age of six months, and providing a more natural, stress-reducing
habitat—with greater and more varied height for climbing and jumping, enhanced
privacy, and more natural light. These methods are showing such success in
stabilizing the leopards that researchers hope soon to be able to have a calm,

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hand-reared female raise her own cubs while allowing human keepers to interact
with her young to keep the cycle going. Two programs in Thailand in which the
Zoo is playing a leading role are the breeding of cubs in Thai zoos for importation
to the United States and the training of Thai forest rangers to monitor wild
carnivores and prevent poaching in the parks.

These collaborative and international projects are serving as a model for
conserving not only this treasured species but also other carnivores throughout
the world.

ASIAN ELEPHANTS

For over 40 years, the National Zoo has pioneered worldwide efforts to
understand and protect the Asian elephant, both in zoos and in the forests of
southern and southeastern Asia. Due to threats in the wild and reproductive
deficiencies in captive populations, the present endangerment of these
magnificent creatures is cause for great concern.

Our Asian Elephant Science and Conservation Program has conducted
groundbreaking projects to conserve Asian elephants in the wild, improve the lot
of those in zoos, and shape a new generation of experts. Projects include the
pioneering use of satellite tracking to study elephants in the wild and understand
how much space they need to survive there; ecological studies leading to the first
comprehensive assessment of how much natural habitat remains for these
elephants; and the first genetic studies demonstrating the evolutionary history of
these elephants and identifying distinct subpopulations for conservation.

Perhaps one of the most urgent endeavors has been the Zoo’s work on the life-
threatening herpesvirus, which accounts for about half of the deaths of juvenile
zoo elephants, who suffer from a very high, 30 percent infant mortality rate,
National Zoo researchers were the first to identify the endotheliotropic
herpesvirus (EEHV) following the death of its 16-month-old Asian elephant,
Kumari. By going through old zoo records and testing archived tissue samples,
they realized that the same mysterious illness had killed other zoo and circus
elephants. The Zoo also discovered and developed the only available tests to
detect this devastating disease.

Today, the Zoo’s National Elephant Herpesvirus Laboratory is the prime
worldwide resource of herpesvirus information, testing, and research for the
global elephant community. It will continue to seek answers to the question why
some elephants get the disease and others do not and how the elephants are
contracting it.

KORI BUSTARDS

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Conservationists believe the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s
designation of the kori bustard as a “species of least concern” simply will not fly.
They cite declining populations in the native eastern and southern African range
of this 40-pound, heaviest of all flying birds that have resulted from habitat
destruction, illegal hunting, and an inherent slow reproduction rate.

The National Zoo took action to counteract this trend, becoming the fourth zoo in
the world to hatch a kori bustard at the start of its special breeding program in
1997. In June 2011, history was made when chick number 50 emerged from its
shell at the Bird House. Like the others, this chick is being hand reared to
increase its breeding potential. Now a world leader in the propagation, breeding,
and management of the species, the Zoo has hatched more kori bustard chicks
than any other U.S. facility. Nearly all have flown on to other North American
zoos.

The Zoo also leads the field in kori bustard behavioral research. A study begun in
1999 has collected over 3,000 hours of data on the bird’s behavior in captivity. In
2007, the Zoo initiated a software program for Palm Pilot that tracks birds at
other zoos and has been pooling the data gathered at those locations. In 2008,
we began collecting data on chicks from a week to five months old, to determine
whether certain behaviors correlate with sex and future breeding success and to
examine how behaviors develop following hatch. In Kenya, at the Mpala
Research Center, the Zoo has conducted studies evaluating blood values and
capture methods in wild kori bustards and expanding our knowledge of the bird’s
health, physiology, nutritional requirements, and disease status in the wild.

KIWI

It’s supposed that the mammal-like kiwi of New Zealand lost its ability to fly
because it evolved on predator-free islands and had no need to develop skill in
aviation. Then, European settlers introduced a variety of predatory species, both
deliberately and accidentally, and the kiwi—particularly its eggs and newly
hatched young—became extremely vulnerable. And yet, the bird has survived for
over 60 million years.

The bad news is that one of the bird’s five species—the brown kiwi—has seen its
numbers drop to 24,000 from 60,000 in the 1980s and has been designated an
endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to
habitat loss and predation by small animals. Conservationists believe that unless
the introduced predators are removed, natural kiwi populations will be lost. The
good news is that where predators have been removed, the kiwi population has
stabilized, and the bird is able to live to 60 years in the wild, as it can in captivity.

New Zealand has successfully removed eggs and chicks from the wild, reared
them, and released them back to the forest after they reach a weight of one
kilogram, when they can defend themselves from most predators. Outside of

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New Zealand, only about 50 kiwis reside at five zoos. The Smithsonian
Conservation Biology Institute’s new kiwi facility in Front Royal, Virginia, used a
pair of breeding kiwis to establish a new science breeding center aimed at
studying and boosting the kiwi population through advances in reproductive
technologies. The National Zoo hopes to become the first to successfully perform
an artificial insemination of the kiwi and conduct hormone-monitoring procedures
to improve the captive management of the species.

NEOTROPICAL MIGRANTS

The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo is dedicated to
fostering the understanding, appreciation, and protection of the grand
phenomenon of bird migration. The Center’s approach is interdisciplinary; its
work, proactive; and its reach, international.

The Center bridges the academic, policymaking, and public worlds to
coordinate efforts to protect migratory birds and their habitats. Bringing public
and policy issues to bear on its research—looking at how human-made
changes affect bird populations and how bird habitat preservation affects
human populations—the Center then translates its findings into
recommendations for public and policy action.

Trying to save species already poised at the brink of extinction is always
difficult—and often futile. The Center focuses instead on clarifying the causes of
declines in migratory bird populations before the situation becomes desperate.
By working proactively to protect the habitats on which these birds depend, we
can avoid the need for expensive, last-ditch, and often less-than-satisfactory
rescue attempts.

Migratory birds recognize no political, cultural, or economic boundaries, so
efforts to protect their habitats must have international scope. The Center's
research, education, and policy efforts extend throughout the Americas to
protect all environments crucial to the annual pilgrimage of migratory birds
within the Western Hemisphere.

MANED WOLVES

The maned wolf—the tallest of wild canids (or, dog-like animals)—once thrived
throughout much of South America. Today, it’s extinct in Uruguay and
increasingly threatened by habitat loss on the rest of the continent. Under a
Special Survival Plan (SSP), North American zoos are collaborating to develop a
hedge population of the species. Unfortunately, maned wolves breed poorly in
zoos. So as part of the SSP’s effort, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology
Institute (SCBI) is collaborating with zoos across the U.S. to apply assisted
reproductive technologies to the problem.

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As Mother Nature would have it, however, two distinguishing features of maned
wolves are hindering the easy application of those technologies. Unlike other
large canid males, the male maned wolf is solitary and, while it will defend a
shared territory, rarely interacts with others. The female maned wolf, for her part,
is open to mating only about one to 10 days of the year. Considering the large
size of the male’s home range—up to 31 square miles—and the female’s short
period of receptivity, “getting together” is proving a formidable challenge.

In response, SCBI scientists are quite brilliantly discovering the mechanics of the
problem and developing solutions. They’ve learned that artificial insemination
hinges on successful ovulation, but that ovulation occurs only if the female is able
to smell the scent marks laid out by the male. In the zoo setting, where the
female is housed alone, this exposure is not always feasible. To date,
researchers have induced ovulation through hormone therapy requiring multiple
anesthetizations. They hope that discovering more about ovulation induction will
lead to a method of priming females for artificial insemination without anesthetic
drugs. That will considerably ease captive management while improving the
welfare of this incredible animal.

CRANES

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) specializes in producing
offspring from genetically valuable cranes with impediments to natural breeding.
It’s hatched 12 critically endangered white-naped crane chicks representing 20
percent of the entire North American captive flock. All were born of cranes other
zoos couldn’t breed.

Conundrums requiring creative and sometimes curious solutions sometimes
present themselves to SCBI personnel trying to breed a white-naped crane who’s
been raised in captivity. If she was bred by artificial insemination, she may have
no living relatives; and since she was raised in a zoo, where breeding is often
problematic, she may never have produced fertile eggs or offspring. Both factors
together mean her genes are very rare and, therefore, very valuable for purposes
of propagating the captive population and maintaining its genetic diversity. But
having been raised in captivity, she likely was hand reared by humans from birth.
While this has great benefits in that the crane is comfortable with humans and a
good candidate for exhibits, imprinting can make the bird see itself as more
human than avian, so that it remains unmoved when a male of the species tries
to court her.

This happened twice with the beautiful white-naped crane Amanda. Once, her
clever keeper decided to take advantage of her human proclivities by gradually
making her so comfortable that she “solicited” him during breeding season,
allowing herself to be artificially inseminated. Another time, staff wanted to breed
Amanda with the male crane James. However, because Amanda had previously

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been paired with Alex, and because cranes mate for life, they wouldn’t separate
her and Alex by having her mate with James. Instead, they bred Amanda and
James via artificial insemination, and left one of Amanda’s two eggs with her and
Alex to incubate.

DESERT GAZELLES (ORYX, DAMA)

Known for its magnificent horns growing to several feet long, the scimitar-horned
oryx once roamed in herds of 1,000 or more through the vast Sahara and Sahel
regions of northern Africa. Today, the World Conservation Union lists this desert
antelope as extinct, a victim of climate change and human encroachment on its
habitat through farming, hunting, and excessive grazing of livestock.

The National Zoo’s Reproduction and Reintroduction of Desert Antelope Project
uses recent advances in the reproductive sciences to enhance the genetic
management of antelope and reintroduce herds to their native ranges. While
captive populations of such species as the oryx and dama gazelle are thriving
due to cooperation between North American and European zoos, genetic
management to prevent inbreeding is difficult due to the dispersement of
individual animals around the globe.

The Project’s pioneering work on artificial insemination techniques for the
scimitar-horned oryx has made it possible to exchange genes within its
population, eliminate transportation risks, and ensure reproduction between
valuable but behaviorally incompatible pairs—all in service of reintroducing the
oryx to the wild. (So far, we’ve done this in Tunisia.) This success has positioned
the project to continue its work with the oryx and extend conservation efforts to
other desert antelopes at high risk of extinction, like the dama gazelle. Exciting
projects in development include:

   •   Establishing a “world herd” genome resource bank for the scimitar-horned
       oryx to aid global genetic management while ensuring that suitable
       individuals are available for planned reintroduction programs;
   •   Creating an 80,000-square-kilometer protected area in Chad and Niger
       where the project can conserve endangered Saharan animals; and
   •   Supporting Sahelian-range country field surveys to determine the status of
       antelope populations and their habitats and explore ways to improve
       protected area management and develop sustainable reintroduction
       programs.

PRZEWALSKI’S HORSES

The tale of the black-footed ferret is truly a Lazarus story of returning from the
dead—many times over. Once inhabiting the western Great Plains, and
dependent on the prairie dog for sustenance, the species declined with the loss

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of the prairie ecosystem. But, despite innumerable challenges, it’s one of the
Smithsonian’s most successful conservation stories.

Although known to native Americans, the black-footed ferret wasn’t officially
recognized until 1851, when John Audubon coauthored a description based on a
single specimen. Subsequently the species was lost, rediscovered, called a
hoax, decimated by disease, and declared extinct. By 1987, fearing real
extinction, scientists finally took action and captured 18 wild individuals—all that
remained—and placed them in a breeding program.

Partnering with several federal and state agencies, the Smithsonian
Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) created a recovery program. There
followed pioneering work with artificial insemination, computer modeling, and
reintroduction of individuals to the wild facilitated by placing them in prairie dog
burrows for a 45-day preconditioning period. In 2008 SCBI began producing
ferret kits with previously frozen sperm, including a sample from one of the
original (and deceased) ferrets captured during an earlier discovery. Today,
6,500 black-footed ferrets have been born in facilities across the U.S. and
Canada.

But returning this creature to the wild, which began in 1991, hasn’t been easy,
and only about 1,000 reintroductions have succeeded to date. Early on, a bias
against putting the entire species in captivity was at play. Also, the black-footed
ferret is so specialized that it cannot survive without its prey, the prairie dog; but,
because the latter is widely considered a pest, some states require its
extermination, so its numbers have declined.

The black-footed ferret’s future is uncertain. It’s still the rarest mammal in
America and still one of the most endangered species in the world.

COGNITION IN GORILLAS AND ORANGUTANS

The National Zoo’s Think Tank exhibit is working to build a conservation ethic
through the understanding of two of the great apes—our highly intelligent primate
cousins, the orangutans and gorillas—both under siege in their natural habitats.

One study, led by scientist Francys Subiaul, is shedding light on how these
animals acquire knowledge, asking whether it’s by observation, cognitive
imitation, or trial and error. Subiaul sees signs that while the apes can acquire
some knowledge through the first two methods, they probably learn the rest
through the third. It’s the apes’ choice whether to participate in the research and,
as it happens, they often seek out, and seem to really enjoy, the challenge.
Visitors can not only watch the animals being tested but they can participate as
test subjects themselves, seeing how they compare with the apes. We need to
care what happens to these close relatives of ours in their natural environments,

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Subiaul says, because they’re an irreplaceable key to understanding ourselves
better.

The second study, conducted by scientist Chikako King, centers on
metacognition—or, thinking about thinking. Her work is designed to glean
answers to questions such as, Can an orangutan remember that she
remembers? Does a gorilla know that he knows? King is finding that these
animals do use metacognition and that their decisions seem to be based on self-
awareness; they recognize their own uncertainty, for example. What they do with
that uncertainty, however, depends on their personality; just like people, some
are more inclined to gamble with their self-knowledge than others. King hopes
the study will help people realize how sophisticated these animals are and,
through that understanding, become more concerned with their welfare, both in
captivity and in the wild.

PANAMANIAN GOLDEN FROGS

The Panamanian golden frog is now extinct in the wild, victim to the chytrid
fungus responsible for the extinction of 122 amphibian species in Australia,
Africa, and Central and North America since 1980. It’s been called “one of the
worst extinction crises of our time.” (For a sense of the relative magnitude of the
disaster, only five bird species and no mammals went extinct during the same
period.)

The National Zoo has long been involved in efforts to stop the biodiversity loss.
Preserving endangered Panamanian amphibians has been a major focus, and
the Zoo is now home to a rescued breeding population of Panamanian golden
frogs. In 2009 the Zoo joined in the Panama Amphibian Rescue and
Conservation Project with the aim of rescuing amphibians at risk of extinction in
eastern Panama and developing a probiotic cure for the fungus.

Recent developments in that research are showing promise. A few years ago,
Reid Harris, a biology professor at James Madison University, had discovered
that local salamanders that could survive chytrid were hosting bacteria on their
skin. More recently Brian Gratwicke, research biologist at the Smithsonian
Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), has been collaborating with a team from
Virginia Tech, James Madison, Villanova, and Vanderbilt Universities in an
experiment to see if similar bacteria can protect the Panamanian golden frog.
Trials are underway to see which probiotics will “stick” to the frog’s skin; those
that do so for a full three months will move on to the next round of tests, when
bacteria-shielded frogs will be infected with chytrid to check for any adverse
effects. At a month and a half in, the bacteria seem to have caused no problems,
and the frogs are looking healthy.

SALAMANDERS

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Almost half of all salamander species are officially listed as threatened or
endangered, and in many cases the cause for their decline is unknown. Since it’s
home to more of these species than any other place in the world, the American
region of Appalachia has become a prime focus of salamander conservation
research and planning.

Many of the species unique to Appalachia belong to the Plethodontidae, a family
of lungless salamanders that breathe entirely through their skin. Because they
must constantly keep that skin moist and cannot move through dry areas, they’re
particularly sensitive to water quality, air temperature, and precipitation levels.
This sensitivity would make adaptation to changes in those environmental factors
extremely difficult. And that’s why the dramatic changes in climate predicted for
the next century are so threatening.

For instance, temperatures are expected to increase by two to six degrees
Celsius each year. While some salamander species could possibly adapt, or
extend their ranges northward to cooler locales, others, particularly high-
elevation species that are often specialized for cool microclimates, may not have
these options. Likewise, precipitation should become less frequent, reducing the
time salamanders can move around within their territories and resulting in fewer
opportunities to feed and find mates. Ephemeral pools of water will be harder to
find, further decreasing breeding opportunities for salamanders that lay eggs in
water.

Because we can’t protect salamanders from climate change the way we can
mitigate pollution or habitat loss, it’s crucial to determine in advance how future
climate conditions will impact each species and what we can do to help them
survive. Ensuring that corridors for migration to cooler, more northern habitats
are available to certain species, relocating others, and raising some in captivity
are just a few of the actions that scientists are intensively researching.

CORAL

Coral reefs comprise some of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on the
planet. Although they cover less than one-tenth of one percent of the earth’s
surface, one-quarter of all marine life depends on them. For humans, coral reefs
provide food, physical barriers against the elements, and medicines for cancer
and HIV-AIDS.

But around the world, colonies that have flourished for thousands of years are
dying due to environmental damage, destructive practices like dynamite fishing
and bottom trawling, and pollution. Global warming causes bleaching—where
symbiotic algae that provide coral with its color and the products of
photosynthesis are expelled—and destroys colonies.

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National Zoo scientists are engaged in exciting research to preempt and respond
to the harming of these magnificent habitats. One international program called
SECORE, initiated by the Rotterdam Zoo, is studying coral sexual reproduction
and developing breeding techniques that wildlife organizations around the world
can share. Scientists and aquarists participating in the collaborative program
traveled to Puerto Rico in 2007 and witnessed an amazing, one-hour, once-a-
year spawning blizzard, then harvested 12,000 microscopic elkhorn coral larvae
with an eye toward restoring the creatures, once grown, to their wild ocean
habitat.

Another program is pioneering new technologies in the cryopreservation of coral
so that they can remain frozen but alive in liquid nitrogen for hundreds—even
thousands—of years and be available to reseed oceans in the event of future
disasters. “It’s crucial that we begin ex situ conservation on coral reefs while their
genetic diversity is still high,” says Mary Hagedorn, a marine biologist at SCBI
and the world’s leading expert in aquatic cryobiology. “Although we hope we’ll
never need to use these banks, the cost of not doing this work and subsequently
losing valuable diversity and resources is too high.”

TIGERS

For centuries, the tiger has symbolized power, beauty, stealth, strength, and
survival in Asian culture. But, due to poaching and habitat degradation and
fragmentation, the continent’s once mighty population of 100,000 tigers has
shrunk to just 3,200. Without significant action, we could witness their extinction
within a decade.

Happily, tiger range and other powerful countries are mobilizing in a war on time
to save the enigmatic feline. The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
(SCBI) is proud to be leading on several fronts. As a founding member of the
Global Tiger Initiative, SCBI is training protected-area frontline managers and
staff to develop and implement strategic anti-poaching systems. Participants will
learn how to incorporate smart patrolling techniques and data collected from field
patrols via GPS into their anti-poaching systems and build comprehensive maps
of locations where poaching, habitat encroachment, tigers, and their prey are
active. This will focus attention and action where they’re needed most.

A perfect complement to this initiative is a recent law enforcement effort targeting
poachers and traffickers called Project Predator, which INTERPOL created and
unveiled at its 80th General Assembly in November 2011. The program will
provide a platform for protected area managers and other law enforcement
professionals to share the kind of intelligence essential to tracking down and
destroying illegal wildlife trade networks.

In November 2010, top political leaders from the tiger range countries adopted
the St. Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation and a comprehensive

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Global Tiger Recovery Program, an important milestone in scaling up the efforts
of tiger range countries to increase the level of cooperation and information
sharing between wildlife officials, customs agencies, and police forces in many
Asian countries. Its unprecedented commitment: to double the number of tigers
in the wild by 2022—the Chinese Year of the Tiger.

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