Photo Credit

The new photo is of Collins Bobcat from Carolina Tiger Rescue.  Amanda Byrne was kind enough to give me photos of Collins, as I have plans to do a series of paintings and drawings of bobcats.  As one could guess, I'm pretty fond of these cats.

Montana Bobcats

I arrived in Whitefish, Montana, yesterday afternoon.  I'll be working on my friend Roberta Newbury's PhD project.  Two days ago, I was wearing a tank top in Houston, Texas (normal in January), whereas today I am wearing layers for -30 F.  As a southerner, I grew up fearing snow, as school was canceled with the threat of two inches (to be fair, this is because snow turns to ice in the south, and we have no idea how to drive on that).  I am always amazed and full of respect for the wildlife that not only survives, but flourishes in the deep snow environment, and I'll be learning to do the same because I'm spending the month tracking bobcats, performing vegetation surveys, and trapping bobcats in more snow that I've ever seen in my life.  This also means I'll be learning to drive a snowmobile, the benefit of the snow being I'll have something soft to land in when I do some really awesome, unintentional flip off of the snowmobile.  Thankfully, there is no dignity in field work: one has to be prepared to fall, trip, bleed, and curse your way through some things.  Luckily, I have done all of these, so I'm looking forward to spending time with great friends on this field crew.  I'm also looking forward to warming my surely freezing hands on the fur of a live (anesthetized) bobcat.  The goal is to retrieve the radio collars, but looking at live bobcats is pretty darn cool, too.  I'll get some good release videos and photos soon.  Days usually begin at 7:30, but today we are starting late because the wind is 40mph up the mountains.  Hopefully my gear will hold up for me and I will stay warm!

MONTANA

Ok so I've pretty much determined that my ability to maintain this site has deteriorated rapidly over the last few months. With that being said, my resolution (including the New Year's resolution to stop texting while driving... just kidding mom, I never do that) will be to update it more accurately. I have a skype date, however, so I'll have to get back on that. My skype date is currently in Whitefish, Montana, working on the bobcat project I'll be joining IN TWO WEEKS.

The only professional way I know how to express my elation: hell yeah!

Foreshadowing: look out for Roberta Newbury. She's doing awesome things in the field of ecology.

Overdue Update

Wow, time flies when you're busy! My stint with the Smithsonian is almost up, and it has been a busy three months, and even busier last three weeks.  The most important thing to note is that intern research presentations are complete! Every intern who comes through SCBI must present to staff scientists and students their findings as well as their experience during the internship. Since I've talked a lot about the project, but not actually a lot on what I've been doing, here it is:

I've been working on a project seeking to optimize oocyte quality for in vitro embryo production in the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa). This project is under the direction of Drs JoGayle Howard and Rebecca Hobbs. Clouded leopards range throughout Southeast Asia, with an approximate wild population of 10,000 individuals. The IUCN lists the species as vulnerable, but because of their elusive nature, cloudeds are difficult to study and have been rarely observed in the wild. In addition to habitat loss, very heaving poaching threatens their survival in the wild. In captivity, male aggression towards females during breeding is often fatal for females, and many of the cats in captivity have never been bred. As a result, the North American clouded leopard population is not sustainable or genetically healthy, and the project I've been working on is trying to mitigate captive reproductive issues by increasing the efficiency of assisted reproductive technologies. Unfortunately, artificial insemination is not successful in the clouded leopard, unlike other cats such as tigers and cheetahs, and this is possibly due to a variety of factors: oocyte quality, embryo quality, uterine abnormalities, sperm morphology or motility, etc. This project wants to develop an in vitro fertilization (IVF) protocol for the clouded leopard. The objective of this project, then, is to assess oocyte quality during periods of activity and inactivity in the cat. Artificial light cycles were used to mimic breeding and non-breeding seasons in the cats, and fecal samples are being used to confirm that the light cycles are suppressing/enhancing ovarian activity.  My project revolves around those fecal samples... I've been extracting steroid hormones in over 1000 samples since I've been here. This is the project in a nutshell, though there is a lot more to the gamete side that I was not involved with, and the fact that I only saw a three-month slideshow of the endeavor.

Cool photo I used from The Clouded Leopard Consortium to outline the IVF  process:

Pictures of what I've been doing:

Weighing out fecal samples for boiling extractions.... woo!

 

Radioactivity!

The internship has been great. The intern group has become a tight knit group and the scientists and SCBI staff are wonderful. I'll need to spend some more time highlighting other events, such as the clouded leopard lecture and auction, ZooLights and NatGeo museum exhibits, finding bird-friendly coffee, and visiting Colonial Williamsburg, but I was in the lab for ten hours today and I need a glass of wine!

Career Opportunities

Good online resources for jobs/graduate programs in biology, ecology, natural resources, conservation, botany...

http://www.wfsc.tamu.edu/jobboard/

http://www.conbio.org/jobs/

http://www.nku.edu/~boycer/gradopps.html

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/UndergradInternships/

Link for Carolina Tiger Rescue "Bring Them Home" Campaign

Carolina Tiger plans to rescue 3 lions: Tarzan, Sheba, and Sebastian, and 3 tigers: Titan, Bali, and Java from the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio, TX. The facility began moving towards closing at the end of August. Some of the new animals should be arriving at Karen's Keep (quarantine) by the end of the week.

Carolina Tiger needs to raise $7,500 to cover the cost of the animals' transport and initial medical care. Donate to our rescue campaign and help us "Bring Them Home"! funds raised in addition to $7500 will be put towards future rescues.

Please visit the website and consider a charitable donation for these animals.

http://carolinatigerrescue.org/news/2010/2010-11-06_WAORescue.asp

Visit the facebook page to get a look at these six cats!
http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=441fd662b1e57dec8cde6d775d66cf2f&#!/CarolinaTigerRescue

Carolina Tiger Rescue Holiday Update

For those of you who don't know, Carolina Tiger Rescue is my 'home territory,' the place that first introduced me to and helped me learn about so many exotic cat species. The people and the animals at this sanctuary are so amazing! I love each and every creature- two legged and four. The sanctuary is home to tigers, ocelots, caracals, servals, one bobcat, kinkajous, and binturongs. For those close by, now is a great time to consider becoming a member, volunteer, or adoptive parent at Carolina Tiger! The sanctuary will be receiving six new cats in the next few weeks: three lions and three tigers from a closing facility in Texas. With these new additions, help is always needed to continue ensuring the high quality of life maintained at Carolina Tiger Rescue. Also, with the holidays approaching, the priority item on their wish list are Motorola radios for animal care and safety coordination. Having dropped one of these radios into a five gallon bucket of water (oops), I know how heavily they are used and how essential they are to getting things done on the 55 acre facility. The sanctuary always welcomes new volunteers, so please visit their website to learn about new volunteer orientations. Adoptive parents donate a fixed rate in honor of the of the resident animals, thereby becoming the animal's "adoptive parent." Adoptive parents enjoy visits, enrichment creation, and playing active roles in the care of those animals. And finally, if you are looking for a way to give during the holidays, consider a charitable donation for the animals at Carolina Tiger Rescue. This might be cliche, but they really are some cool cats!

And if you aren't nearby or cannot afford the time to visit Carolina Tiger Rescue, visit the website to learn about how shopping Pampered Chef with give a portion of the proceeds to Carolina Tiger Rescue (good through December 6).

http://carolinatigerrescue.org/


Be sure to become a fan on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=441fd662b1e57dec8cde6d775d66cf2f&#!/CarolinaTigerRescue

 

Julio, one of my favorite ocelots, with his holiday pumpkin (October 2009)