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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 10,2009
NEWS 5A
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2008
WILDLIFE
'Dating'service hooks up potential animal mates
Digital studbooks used by more than 200 zoos around the world
John Davis, curator of mammals at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C., uses a nationwide computerized matchmaking studbook, which will eventually connect Oz, a baby koala. to a future mate when he is ready.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, S.C — Attention, amorous guys; Killarney's an Australian cutie, but woo her with care.
The feisty gal once swatted at a beau who got a little close, and gave another poor fellow the cold shoulder during their introduction.
Undaunted, Killarney's friends keep updating her online profile in the hope of finding her Mr. Right. Like many of her contemporaries, the koala might find her dream date waiting somewhere in the files of a computerized matchmaking service, keepers at the Riverbanks Zoo theorize.
Just like the digital dating services that pair up people, so-called studbooks are used to match most animals held in captivity. The databases containing information on sex, age and weight — not so much about favorite comfort foods or long walks on the beach
— are used by more than 200 zoos nationally and some internationally. They're practically taking the place of Mother Nature in the not-so wild world of captive animal breeding.
Now, new software is going to the Web, promising more easily accessible data, faster matches and — in a page out of the most particular of human dating sites — details on an animal's personality to ease what can be a testy process.
Zoos won't be required to document the turn-ons and turn-offs of each animal in Zoological Information Management Systems, a collaboration between about 150 zoos and aquariums that's a year or two away from wide distribution.
At the very least, though, the software will give zoookeepers better access to species-level details currently found only in zoo husbandry manuals that now are mostly e-mailed back and forth, said Bob Wiese, director of collections for the Zoological Society of San Diego.
While there's no candlelight or Marvin Gaye being played in the back rooms of zoos, there are endless tricks used to get the animals in the mood, said Wiese, widely considered the authority on ZIMS. In China, breeding experts have claimed success putting giant pandas in the mood by showing them images of other pandas mating — panda porn, as it's been called.
Around since the 1980s in paperback form, most of today's studbooks are in computerized databases. Basic information such as family tree, medical history, age and weight are entered by studybook keepers, then sent to a central location where the data is analyzed and converted into a "master plan" for breeding.
"There are some frogs that you have to simulate rain for or they won't come out and breed." Wiese said. "Other frogs, they just need to hear the sound of rain and the sound of lightning and thunder. That's what sets off their hormones."
moms should eat snails.
That could mean the difference between a sustainable population and extinction of a species, said Ed Diebold, director of animal collections at Riverbanks Zoo, one of the only zoos to successfully breed several species of geckos.
But the databases have their limitations. They aren't updated quickly and don't include the extra information from the dog-eared husbandry manuals on setting the optimal conditions for an animal's breeding.
"Big populations out in the wild breed randomly," Diebold said. "In captivity, usually these populations are considerably smaller than wild populations, which is why you can't afford to allow animals to inbreed or breed along closely related lines. That's why you have the studbooks."
So zookeepers who rely on the databases might not know, for instance, that satanic leaf-tailed geckos like group sex, that fighting equals foreplay for giant leaf-tailed geckos or that expectant gecko
Careful planning among zoos may take some of the wild out of
"the wild thing" but it also ensures that the most genetically diverse animals breed, said Steve Feldman, spokesman for the Association of Zoos and Aquarium, which oversees the majority of studbooks for exotic species in the U.S.
"To paraphrase an old Jeff Foxworthy joke, it's important that your family tree forks." Feldman said. "This way we can have a genetically diverse population."
The Columbia zoo is one of about 20 chosen to test the ZIMS software once it becomes available. Walt Disney World, which manages one of the largest collections of studbooks in the U.S., will be another test site.
"Studbooks are the key to our long-term breeding plans," said John Lenhhardt, animal operations director at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Fla. "We want to ensure that these endangered species are here for the future and that's really what the studbooks are all about. What we're trying to do is maintain a savings account in species."
Disney manages about 27 studbooks, like the one for the African elephant. It also holds one of the nation's largest herds of elephants, which includes a female elephant recently sent to Disney World from Riverbanks Zoo. Keepers remain hopeful that Tumpe is a
good match for the young bull that's already fathered a few calves through artificial insemination.
HURRICANE IKE
"She is now cohabitating with a very handsome young male," Lehnhardi said. "We have put these two together in the hopes that we'll have some success."
It's not exactly animals finding love online, but experts say matchmaking software for zoos is bringing together the single most important factor in ensuring the survival of animals — people.
"It's really about us gathering the best scientific information we can get to make the best decisions about the long-term viability of our populations," Wiese said.
Officials discuss mandatory evacuation as Ike approaches
ASSOCIATED PRESS
McALLEN, Texas — With Hurricane Ike steaming into the Gulf of Mexico, Texas emergency officials Tuesday stood ready to order 1 million people evacuated from the impoverished Rio Grande Valley and tried to convince tens of thousands of illegal immigrants that they have less to fear from the Border Patrol than from the storm.
Emergency planning officials were meeting all day to decide if and when to announce a mandatory evacuation for coastal counties close to the Mexican border.
With forecasts showing Ike blowing ashore this weekend, authorities lined up nearly 1,000 buses in case they are needed to move out the many poor and elderly people who have no cars.
Federal authorities gave assurances they would not check people's immigration status at evacuation loading zones or inland checkpoints. But residents were skeptical, and there were worries that many illegal immigrants would refuse to board buses and go to shelters for fear of getting arrested and deported.
One reason for the skepticism: Back in May, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Border Patrol would do nothing to impede an evacuation in the event of a hurricane. But when Hurricane Dolly struck the Rio Grande Valley in late July, no mandatory evacuation was ordered, and as a result the Border Patrol kept its checkpoints open. Agents soon caught a van load of illegal immigrants.
"People are nervous," said the Rev. Michael Seifert, a Roman Catholic priest and immigrant advocate. "The message that was given to me was that it's going to be a real problem."
It would be the first mandatory large-scale evacuation in South Texas history. State and county officials let people decide for themselves whether to leave a hurricane area until just before Hurricane Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. Now county officials can order people out of harm's way.
Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said if an evacuation is ordered this time, county officials will visit immigrant neighborhoods and forcefully urge people to clear out.
After Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav, "there were a lot of immigrants who said, I'm not going to go," said Salinas, the county's top elected official. "It's going to be hard."
In Washington, Rear Adm. W. Craig Vanderwagen, assistant U.S. health secretary for preparedness and response, told reporters: "In storm events, if people are trapped it doesn't particularly matter to those of us in the humanitarian assistance world which side of that border they come from. We will do what we need to do to evacuate the people who need to be evacuated."
At 5 p.m. EDT, Ike was about 90 miles southwest of Havana, Cuba, moving northwest at 10 mph with sustained winds near 75 mph. It was expected to cross the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening to a Category 3 with winds of up to 130 mph.
Forecasters said that it could hit on Saturday morning just about anywhere along the Texas coast, with the most likely spot close to the Corpus Christi area.
Areas from Matagorda Bay to Corpus Christi and south to Brownville — about 250 miles of coastline — were told to prepare for possible mandatory evacuation.
The Rio Grande Valley is still soggy from Dolly, which flooded the region, damaging hundreds of homes but killing no one. Many homes still have blue tarps on their roofs.
On Tuesday, Ike roared across Cuba, ravaging homes, killing at least four people and forcing 1.2 million to evacuate.
The Rio Grande Valley's residents are among those least equipped to handle hurricane flooding. It is one of the poorest parts of the country, with one-third of all families living below the poverty line, compared with 10 percent nationally.
Colonias, or ramshackle communities often lacking sewer systems and paved streets, dot the Valley. Even an ordinary rainstorm can fill yards with disease-ridden sewage from flooded septic tanks. Many of the poor lack health insurance.
Mexican officials said more than a dozen dams in the northern state of Chihuahua were at capacity or spilling over, heightening fears of flooding on the American side of the border.
Gov. Rick Perry declared 88 coastal counties disaster areas Monday to start the flow of state aid, and began preparing for an evacuation, lining up "buses rather than body bags."
The Dallas-Fort Worth area sheltered about 3,000 Hurricane Gustav evacuees last week and is prepared for up to about 20,000 people this time, said Steve Griggs, a county official. The downtown convention center would again serve as the main shelter.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Melanie Ortiz loads up on water in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday in preparation for Hurricane Ike. she lives on Padre Island and said she would leave if it looked like the hurricane would hit Corpus Christi or nearby, but she said she wanted to be prepared with food and water just in case the electricity went out at some point. Officials have not yet declared a mandatory evacuation.
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