Saturday
Morning Science: facts from feces
Julia Shuck, posted Oct. 12, 2006
“It
smells just like an elephant because they are herbivores,”
said Lori S. Eggert, biological sciences professor at MU.
“It doesn’t have a bad smell.” This description
was used to describe the tubes of African Elephant dung samples
students were holding in their hands. “Facts from Feces:
Using DNA from dung in population biology” was the theme
for this week’s Saturday Morning Science at the Life
Sciences Center held from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m on Oct. 7. Eggert
shared with the about 150 attendees her experience with collecting
and analyzing the dung samples she gathered in Africa.
Eggert received her PhD in population biology at the University
of California in San Diego and her post doctorate working
at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. According
to Eggert, dung samples can be collected to learn more about
a species of animals that are too allusive or too dangerous
to be studied by observation.
“[The DNA feces] method gives you a lot more information
than just a count of elephants,” Eggert said. Technology
has advanced in such a way that by collecting dung samples
from African elephants, scientists can estimate the population
or herd size and migration or movement patterns (where dung
from one animal is located one day in relations to where it
is located a week later). They can also determine the sex
and age of individual elephants, as well as the health of
the individual elephant, including if it has or has had any
diseases.
Eggert said that dung sampling is just starting and hopefully
it will lead scientists to determine the reproduction success
of a male elephant. Is it the size of his tusks, which allow
for protection over waterholes that females enjoy, or is it
something else? Also, can dung sampling reveal the fertility
of female elephants and determine if they are cycling like
they should? There are still many questions that Eggert hopes
dung sampling can one-day answer.
Scientists are planning to begin dung sample testing on Asian
Elephants, the smaller version of their African counterpart.
