Zoo InternQuest is a seven-week career exploration program for San Diego County high school juniors and seniors. Students have the unique opportunity to meet professionals working for the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research, learn about their jobs, and then blog about their experience online. Follow their adventure here on the Zoo’s website!
This week, interns had the amazing opportunity to meet and talk with Maggie Reinbold, Director of Conservation at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. Mrs. Reinbold has fought for over twenty years to educate the public on the California condor’s peril, an effort that has helped bring the species back from the brink of extinction. Interns learned all about the California condor, from its initial time of endangerment, to reproduction problems in captivity and all the way to its triumphant return to the wild; an experience I am sure I will not forget.
Arriving at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research, we came face to face with the spearhead for conservation education. Mrs. Reinbold has been educating the public for over twenty years, interpreting past and present information, and relaying it to the public in a way that is easy to understand. Through a slideshow and some cool visuals, Mrs. Reinbold showed us the history of the California condor. At the start of the twentieth century, there were over 400,000 condors soaring the skies, by the 1980’s, less than fifty remained. Zoos in Southern California saw the species going into a downward spiral, and rushed in to help. Even though the public was wary, San Diego Zoo, and other conservation organizations including Fish and Wildlife, the Los Angeles Zoo, and the National Audubon Society were able to capture the last remaining condors. By the time all the condors were brought into managed care, there were only twenty-seven birds remaining. With a nine and a half foot wingspan, and little knowledge on the species, the Zoo had a tough challenge ahead of them if they wanted to save the California condor, let alone return them to the wild. The challenges were building up for San Diego Zoo Global, but they were not discouraged at all. The San Diego Zoo began breeding the remaining birds as soon possible and utilized double clutching. Double clutching is a process where the condor would lay an egg, the Zoo’s staff would take it to an incubator, and then the bird would lay another. This way the Zoo could double the hatching rate further accelerating the recovery process. Through double clutching, gender determination, and a dedicated staff, the San Diego Zoo was able to raise the number of condors from twenty-two in 1982, all the way up to more than four hundred individuals today.
Although condor populations have risen, it wasn’t as easy as it seems. One of the many problems conservation organizations and others ran into was genetic diseases. Lethal dwarfism was extremely common in captive condors, being as high as 80% in hatchlings. To combat this, the Zoo, using genetic determination through tests like gel electrophoresis, was able to split the captive species population into three groups. By doing this, the Zoo was able to ensure that no two condors carrying the recessive lethal dwarfism trait would mate with each other. In doing so, this lowered the disease rate to 10%, the average for wild condors. This is very similar to what humans do. Before pregnancy, many future parents will go through genetic testing identical to that of the condors, to see if they are both carriers of certain diseases. If they are, the parents can take precautions to avoid future mutations. Both condor and human parents are well looked out for!
After we learned all about California condors, we got to do our very own genetic determination tests on real samples from condors residing at the Safari Park! Using Gel Electrophoresis testing, we were able to determine the gender by seeing the different sizes of our DNA samples. To do this, we needed to identify how fast our DNA samples traveled through the Gel Electrophoresis test. In humans, males have two different chromosomes, X and Y, and females only have X. But that is not the case in birds! Male individuals have two identical chromosomes, Z, and females have both, Z and W. How does this help us you ask? Well the W chromosome in birds is slightly larger than the Z, so it travels a little slower through the Gel Electrophoresis test. So if your DNA sample comes out from the test with two strands, one on top of the other, then you know you have a female condor! My strands of DNA came out as one, so it was confirmed that my condor, number four, was a male! Mrs. Reinbold told us that technology has been extremely important in the condor conservation story, and still has a role to play. “You guys live in an exciting age,” explained Mrs. Reinbold. New tech is most definitely going to help endangered species in the future!
Hearing all about the struggles of the California condor, you may be asking yourself, how can I help? I am only one person! “Leave the world a better place,” Mrs. Reinbold advised. Mrs. Reinbold’s main job is to make sure the public is educated about condors, and the ways we can to help. And you, the reader, has a very important role to play in conservation. First and foremost, Mrs. Reinbold told us that picking up small pieces of trash in condor areas can help immensely. Seeing the small piece of litter, condors often mistake it for bone fragments, and when they ingest it, they often die. You may not have left the trash there, but you can always pick it up and help make the world a better place. Lead poisoning is also a huge issue with condors. Hunters shoot an animal, take only the parts they want, and leave the rest. When condors come by to scavenge the carrion, the lead in the animal’s bloodstream kills them. An easy way to counter this is to stop using lead bullets in condor areas. If you are a hunter, or know somebody who uses lead bullets, tell them to stop! It may be the difference between condor extinction or recovery.
Mrs. Reinbold is very passionate about spreading the word about California condors. She takes great pride in making sure those who talk with her always leave knowing much more about these magnificent birds. And she has high hopes for them as well. One day, she hopes that the endangered bird will create one large breeding population. But, that is not her only wish, one of her biggest aspirations is condors back in the San Diego area. The future of this great bird is in our hands. It is now our job to not only save the California condor, but to help it thrive in this new world.
Patrick, Real World Team
Week Two, Winter Session 2016
