Save the Animals; DNA Fingerprinting of Endangered Species.

 

Till now there has been no reliable methods for counting the number of endangered species in a given area. Setting up camp and spying to catch a glimpse of a passing species has been the best known method to site the number animals in a given area. Conservationists don’t have to sit watch anymore due to a new genetic method to getting significant and accurate totals of not only the animals on site but also the ones that are “just visiting”.

Andrew DeWoody, a professor of genetics at Purdue University; Jamie Ivy, population manager at the San Diego Zoo; and Todd Katzner, a research assistant professor at the University of West Virginia, according to an article in The Hindu: India’s National Newspaper found that visual counts of imperial and white-tailed sea eagles in the Narzum National Nature Reserve of Kazakhstan were underestimated. By using DNA from eagle feathers gathered in the area the researchers were able to get DNA fingerprints for each bird. 414 birds were identified from this DNA evidence, that is three times as many birds as they had originally estimated through observation, and two and a half times more then was estimated through modeling.

The flaw in the original methods of observing was that the birds are difficult to capture, mark, and recite, this makes it hard to differentiate between the birds. Keeping track of the birds that are coming and going also causes discrepancy in their numbers. From extracting the DNA of feathers found around hundreds of roosting sites they were able to determine that hundreds of eagles had recently visited the site.

Knowing that the DNA of animals can help save endangered species is reassuring to the conservation biology field. By taking the DNA fingerprints of other endangered species this could help show just how small a species has become, this knowledge may bring to light how urgent the call is to save different species. I hope more Wild Life Reserves use this method to save the animals.