STUDENT CONFERENCE ON CONSERVATION SCIENCE AT BANGALORE, INDIA

The Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) – Bangalore brings together young researchers in conservation science to facilitate interaction, encourage exchange of research ideas and methods, and help build contacts and capacity. As a sister conference to SCCS-Cambridge, and SCCS-New York, SCCS-Bangalore focuses on attracting students primarily from countries in South and South-east Asia and Africa. SCCS-BNG 2012 will be held on 02-04 August 2012 at the JN Tata Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS AND REGISTRATIONS FOR ATTENDANCE ARE NOW OPEN! Get a login ID and apply before 30 April 2012. Important dates The deadline for abstract submission is 30th April 2012 Online and early registration (reduced fee of INR 1500) deadline 30th June 2012 Online late registration (1- 31 July only) and spot registration at venue fee INR 2000. Workshop registrations will online only and will be open to all paid and registered participants from 1st July 2012 The primary contact for SCCS-BNG is sccs@sccs-bng.org Download and print the SCCS-BNG 2012 poster for your college, university or institution.

PARTICIPATE ’12	HOW TO APPLY	PROGRAMME ’12
The Conference aims to have 150 student presenters from South, Southeast Asian and African countries. The most important part of the three-day programme will be poster sessions and fifteen-minute talks by students on any aspect of conservation science. For conservation agencies and NGOs, the conference will offer an excellent forum to reach out to young, enthusiastic and capable researchers and conservationists.	Any conservation researcher at an early stage (i.e., undergraduate and above, but not beyond two years post-PhD) is welcome to apply to attend the Student Conference on Conservation Science-Bangalore. Most delegates are Masters or PhD students, or work at a similar level in a conservation or research organisation. Those working in the social science aspects of conservation are encouraged to attend and present their work. [...]	The programme will consist of plenary talks by eminent speakers, student presentations (oral and poster), workshops and discussions, and a session Who’s Who in Conservation. Our plenary speakers will be announced soon.

WORKSHOPS	WHO’S WHO IN CONSERVATION	SCCS-BNG 2011
Some workshops will focus on building skills necessary to be an effective conservation scientist; others are more broad and discuss new directions or new ideas. Confirmed workshops include those on scientific writing; research design; basic data visualisation and analysis; conservation genetics; reading scientific papers; conservation photography and open-source GIS.	In this session, academic departments, NGOs, government agencies and others working in conservation will present posters describing their work and possible funding and employment opportunities. Representatives from participating organisations will be at hand to answer questions.	The first two conferences took place at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. Besides a wide range of student presentations, there were talks and plenaries by well-known conservation scientists and practitioners and an opportunity to meet and interact with other conservation science students and researchers from across South and Southeast Asia.

WORLD PANGOLIN DAY: SAVE INDIAN PANGOLIN

WORLD PANGOLIN DAY

(18th February 2012)

YETI brings together over 300 young ecologists

SUSHANTA TALUKDAR


Young Ecologists Talk and Interact (YETI), the largest student-organised academic conference on ecology and conservation, brought together over 300 students and researchers of ecology on a single platform at IIT-Guwahati here on Tuesday for a three-day-long deliberations on latest biodiversity and conservation issues.

The conference kick started with Professor S.K. Barik of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) putting forth his long term research on plant communities in the northeast. Delivering the first plenary lecture,Professor Barik explained in detail the impact of gaps in structuring a forest stand.

“This year's YETI is being organised in northeast for the first time primarily to focus upon the unique yet understudied rich biodiversity of the region,” said Subhankar Chakraborty on behalf of organisers.

In the second plenary talk, Professor Anindya Sinha of National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore talked about the social organisation of bonnet macaques and highlighted the long-term demographic and socio-ecological studies in their population in Bandipur National Park–Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary of the peninsular India. The study revealed a unique co-existence of two different social organisations in bonnet macaque. Long-term observation on several groups of monkeys in this region has also revealed the possible affect on behavioural patterns of monkeys due to provisioning of food by the tourists.

Professor Sinha described YETI as a remarkable lesson for Indian scientific community. He said that YETI being a conference organised by students for students is the kind of movement which should catch on in the country. The conference has provided the students from northeastern States, who he said have traditionally been marginalised, an opportunity to come together with other students and for the students who have come from rest of India it was fascinating to come to northeast and see plants, animals, people they have never seen before.

Apart from two plenary lectures, the first day of the conference witnessed a range of activities including, two panel discussions on open data sharing and another on biodiversity portals, two popular talks on “Conservation efforts and experience in Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh” by Dr. Ramana Athreya and “A historical account of herpetofaunal research in the northeast India” by Dr. Abhijit Das.

Other programmes included four workshops and a large number of oral and poster presentations by the research scholars across the country on varied topics including forest ecosystem dynamics, ideas of open access, animal behaviour.

The workshops included dedicated sessions on basic statistics, designing questionnaire-based research with rural communities and basic conservation genetics in which about 100 students participated. The main event was student presentations, wherein participants had interactive discussions about their research with experts and their peers.

The Hindu is the media partner for the event.

---

Aim is to focus on northeast's rich biodiversity

Lectures and panel discussions held on first day

Research on climate change impact on Chilika

In its bid to understand the impact of climate change on Chilika lagoon, the Chilika Development Authority and Wetlands International-South Asia (WISA) will launch a three-year research programme.

 The programme, with focus on livelihood resilience, aims at enhancing climate preparedness of wetland management by developing response options and strategies for reducing climate-related risks as well as increasing community preparedness for changes in wetland ecosystem services.

 Chilika being a coastal wetland, the CDA has been, for quite some time,  seeking to carry out the study to assess the probable impact of the climate change on the brackish water lagoon. Sanctioned under the Climate Change and Water Programme of International Development and Research Centre (IDRC), the project will be implemented by WISA and CDA with expert support from the Institute of Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Australia.

 Through the project, CDA and WISA look at building climate scenario modelling, participatory risk assessments with the communities. The initiative is first of its kind to be implemented for a wetland system and would be of immense use to wetland managers in the country, Chief Executive of CDA Ajit Kumar Patnaik said.

 The three-year research would focus on scenario of change in ecosystem components, processes and services of Chilika due to climate change. Besides, assessment of current coping and adaptation mechanisms within wetland communities and enhancement of livelihood resilience in changing climate through pilot interventions will be taken up. Agro-climate plan for wetland management identifying adaptation options, intervention strategies, priority actions and investment will also be part of it.

 The research findings will be used to guide investment planning for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The project, which will be launched on Thursday, would be a platform for knowledge sharing among wetland managers across the country.

 Stephen McGurk, Regional Director (South Asia and China) of International Development Research Centre, also a noted development economist with experience in leading a wide range of projects, will unveil the project.

Topics:

climate change,

Chilika

DNA Fingerprinting and Wildlife Forensics

An important goal of the conservation management programs in Wildlife of the critically endangered species is the determination of parentage and levels of genetic diversity within the remaining population. Such determination is possible, with high rate of success, is by use of DNA based methods. Every living life form on earth contains the most basic building blocks of life – the Deoxyribonucleic Acid or DNA, which provides them their biological identity either as an individual, a species or a population as well as their geographical origin and evolutionary history. Using the understanding of DNA science, coupled with the presence of efficient molecular techniques to examine information in DNA markers (segments of DNA in the genome of organisms that reveal variations), biological information can be tapped, revealing otherwise unreachable information at all levels of life. Furthermore, with the support of specific statistical tools and bioinformatics to analyse DNA data, inferences about the biology of organisms can be done, thus providing essential details for evolutionary, population and conservation biology.

Wildlife forensics is a relatively new method for law enforcement around the world and has not yet caught up the attention of Indian wildlife experts. It uses the same principles as human forensics, with a few modifications. The difference is that wildlife forensics needs to be able to identify and distinguish between a variety of species, whereas human forensics is concerned with just one species – Homo sapiens. The advent and application DNA fingerprinting (in the mid 1980’s) has been essential for both wildlife and human forensics.

The aim of wildlife forensics is to provide information for the conclusive identification of the animal carcass, for conviction of offenders, and hopefully deter these acts. It is also active in various molecular genetic research aiding wildlife management and conservation.

DNA fingerprinting allows for the identification of an individual or species. DNA sample sizes may be too small, so DNA amplification techniques may be applied. This involves the amplification of the small amount of DNA wherein in a short period of time the amount of DNA is greatly amplified. DNA fingerprinting allows the questioned wildlife sample can be confirmed with a match to the standard sample maintained in the laboratory.

DNA fingerprinting is useful in Wildlife management in several ways including;

* individual identification for matching tissue samples from an illegal kill site to samples associated with suspect.

* species identification of unknown tissue samples involved in illegal commercialization and poaching

* includes identification of mixed game products – packed meats

* sex identification to enforce the violations of the wildlife acts

* parentage analysis for captive breeding programs

* applying a non-invasive DNA sexing method (through the use of feathers) on birds. For the success of breeding efforts {as birds of both sexes do not show any distinct differences in their external morphology (sexual dimorphism) at their juvenile stage as well as at their adult stage}.

The law requires that guilt of an accused under Wildlife protection acts be established beyond a reasonable doubt. To do this, the prosecution needs either eyewitness testimony or physical evidence. The Wildlife laboratories can provide this physical evidence and serious violations of wildlife laws can be investigated and prosecuted. The U.S. has a national lab, and Canada has various labs across the country and India has none except for a research lab – LaCones at Hyderabad. One of the longest running ones is The Wildlife Forensics DNA Laboratory at Trent University in Ontario, Canada. It was the first lab to produce DNA evidence to be accepted into a North American court involving a wildlife violation. In India the most important case to have caught the attention of Wildlife experts was the Salman Khan Black Buck case wherein I had conclusively proved that the carcass exhumed after postmortem was indeed a black buck and not a deer as some assumed it to be. Now the US handles over 50 cases a year, providing convictions with fines, whereas in India it is a dismal 2 cases per year with cases still being under trial.

There is a need to conduct more molecular genetics research for wildlife management and conservation. The question many of you may ask is what is the use of Genetic Consequences? Or what connection does wildlife forensics have with conservation and genetics? Well at the out set it gives you direction in possible increase in population size with a decrease in animals hunted, increase population size, decrease possibility of inbreeding, increase heterozygosity and in turn, increase fitness. Current research on the population structure of a highly endangered local freshwater crocodile (Tomistoma schlegelii) using DNA based methods to infer bio-geographical distribution of the species range within Malaysia and South East Asia is yielding important results.

A Forensic wildlife laboratory will also receive analysis costs from other organizations and research grants. It then provides information that can aid in the prosecution of an offender, who then pays a fine to the government. Further, in the future, similar techniques that are used in the human genome project could be transferred to wildlife forensics, and automation will be the key. Studies of populations using past genetic information and comparing it to present and future genetic information with the assistance of DNA databases could provide knowledge any genetic impact of wildlife forensics. It is important to note that other aspects could also affect the outcome, and these need to be taken into consideration when drawing inferences. Therefore the need of the hour is that all the Officers of the Indian Forest Service and Conservators of Forests should unite to demand for Forensic Wildlife Laboratories to meet the requirement for better Wildlife conservation.

This is a cross post from Dr. GV Rao’s Blog. Interesting information on the use of DNA in wildlife management in India.Visit Dr. Rao’s Blog

AAZV 18th Annual Zoo & Wildlife Pathology Workshop 2011

AAZV 18th Annual Zoo & Wildlife Pathology Workshop 2011

AAZV 18th Annual Zoo and Wildlife Pathology Workshop 2011

This all day workshop will be held on Sunday, October 23, 2011 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM in Kansas City, Missouri. Featured will be case presentations of classic or new entities of zoo and wildlife species.


The pathology topics this year are nutritional diseases and intoxications. The keynote speakers will be Drs. Robert Poppenga of UC Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine and the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory for toxicology and Dr. Mark Edwards from the Department of Animal Science, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly-SLO) for nutritional diseases. Both individuals are known for their expertise as it applies to zoo and wildlife species.

To Learn More Please Click

HERE

An Animal’s Perspective - Center for Zoo Animal Welfare

An Animal’s Perspective - Center for Zoo Animal Welfare

An Animal’s Perspective

A Unique View on How Zoo Animals Experience Their World

Presented by the Center for Zoo Animal Welfare

Detroit Zoological Society

October 11-14, 2011

Instructors: Dr. Cynthia Bennett, Director of Animal Welfare, Detroit Zoological Society and Gail Laule, Active Environments

Detroit Zoological Society’s Center for Zoo Animal Welfare is offering a unique four-day workshop designed for animal care and facilities staff, supervisors, curators and veterinarians working with captive exotic animals. The workshop will present topics and exercises aimed at improving the well-being of captive animals by better understanding their perspectives and experiences. Participants will attempt to see the zoo through the animals’ eyes, hear the zoo through their ears, smell the zoo though their noses and experience the habitats as they experience them.

The workshop will present topics related to improving the welfare of captive exotic animals. Topics will include understanding the limitations that a human perspective imposes on our view of the world, identification and resolution of animal welfare issues through environmental modification and enrichment, positive reinforcement training techniques, and altered husbandry practices. Workshop format includes lectures, discussions, small group projects, demonstrations and multiple hands-on opportunities with animal environments at the Detroit Zoo.

For information contact:

Elizabeth Arbaugh, Animal Welfare Manager
Detroit Zoological Society
Tel: 248-398-0903 x3643
E-mail: Elizabeth@dzs.org

or 

Mary Wulff, Animal Welfare Supervisor

Detroit Zoological Society
Tel: 248-398-0903 x3644
E-mail: mwulff@dzs.org