IoZ Annual Report 2006 - 07
Transcription
IoZ Annual Report 2006 - 07
Institute of Zoology LIVING conservation Science for Conservation Annual Report of the Institute of Zoology 2006/07 director’s introduction 1 IoZ objective 2 IoZ objective 3 To undertake relevant, high-quality biological research and research training To anticipate and respond to conservation research priorities identified by conservation organisations To communicate outcomes and results to scientists, conservation practitioners and the wider community IoZ Activities We run a programme of meetings and publications see page 8: HEFCE funded programme We undertake research and research training. Current themes are: • Biodiversity and macroecology see page 12 • Behavioural and population ecology see page 14 • Genetic variation, fitness and adaptability see page 16 • Wildlife epidemiology see page 18 • Reproductive biology see page 20 We provide training through MSc and PhD programmes see page 25 Science Plan. The major topics: (a) Biodiversity patterns and processes How can we explain and model biological diversity at a range of spatial, temporal and biological scales? (b) People and the environment in a changing world How can we manage wild species and habitats sustainably alongside human population growth and development? • Journal of Zoology and Animal Conservation • Annual programme of evening scientific meetings • Biannual international symposia on topical themes in conservation biology • Technical publications to support best practice in zoos (International Zoo Yearbook) and in field conservation (Conservation Reports) • Conservation Science and Practice book series published with Blackwell with ZSL We respond to research questions and contribute to ZSL’s Conservation Programmes see page 22: • Bushmeat and forests • Carnivores and people • Deserts and rangelands • Marine and freshwater • UK native species • Island ecosystems • Conservation biology book series published with CUP We respond to research questions and contribute to ZSL’s living animal collection: • Animal health and welfare research • Reproductive monitoring } This table summarises the main aspects of our research strategy, and the way in which it is to be implementedi with our partners and collaborators. A full version of the strategy is available on request. IoZ objective 1 } ioz research strategy Institute of Zoology mission: To identify, undertake, and communicate high-quality research to benefit the conservation of animal species and their habitats. with Cambridge University We maintain and develop research links with Zoology and other relevant departments Our research is influenced by organisations in the Cambridge Conservation Forum We contribute to the Tropical Biology Association programme and Cambridge Student Conference with institutions in London We maintain and develop research links with academic bodies, especially the Centre for Ecology and Evolution Our research is influenced by London-based conservation issues Our meetings facilities and programme of talks communicate science and conservation Research questions are influenced by our formal links with the Wildlife Conservation Society and English Nature Our meetings facilities and programme of talks communicate science and conservation We run MSc courses in Wild Animal Health and Wild Animal Biology with the Royal Veterinary College and a MSC course in Conservation Science see page 25 with other organisations 1 director’s introduction Collaboration with most relevant outside bodies for our core research interests see page 28 foreword Contents 1 Foreword 2 Introduction 3 Awards 4 Research news 6 Indicators and assessments unit 8 Communicating science 10 Funding 12 Biodiversity and macroecology 14 Behavioural and population ecology 16 Genetic variation, fitness and adaptability 18 Wildlife epidemiology 20 Reproductive biology 22 ZSL conservation programmes 24 Library 25 Education and training 26 Governance, staff and students 28 Collaborations 31 Staff representation 32 Publications This annual report emphasises once again the remarkable diversity of research carried out at the Institute of Zoology and its impact on the conservation of animals and their environments through distinguished scientific publications, promotion of research findings to relevant organisations and the wider public, and the training of the future generation of scholars and practitioners. Among the highlights, the reader will find here news of a large DEFRA grant for the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme. The 2006 Living Planet Report describes indicators of how well or otherwise the earth is surviving under the environmental pressures of modern lifestyles. It illustrates the immense benefit of an Institute working closely with organisations such as the WWF and the Global Footprint Network in producing outcomes that should advise policy makers. The following pages also reveal a dynamic programme. A new Behavioural and Population Ecology research theme integrates studies of individuals and populations. These include the resistance of California sea lions to pathogens, DNA barcoding success in the identification of known and previously unknown biodiversity of the oceans, and prediction of the spread of emerging diseases, such as West Nile virus, to the Galapagos. The link between the Institute and University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology continues to be fruitful as seen in the wealth of collaborative studies, the strength of publications and the training of students. The same can be said for collaborations with institutions in London and elsewhere. Altogether, staff, research students, honorary research fellows and associates have reached record levels. Much of the credit must go to the dedication of the Institute’s staff and the support of the Officers and Directors, but also to the former Director of Science, Professor Georgina Mace CBE FRS who has now become Professor of Conservation Science and Director of the Natural Environment Research Council Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College, London. We thank her for all that she achieved and contributed to the the Institute and wish her every success in her new post. We were delighted to learn that she is the winner of the 2007 International Cosmos Prize. We are very pleased to welcome Professor Tim Blackburn as Head of the Institute. Previously Professor of Macroecology at the University of Birmingham, he is also Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. During the interregnum the Institute was most ably led by Dr Bill Holt who is warmly thanked for his loyal guidance. Professor Sir Brian Heap Chair, ZSL/University of Cambridge Joint Committee foreword 1 Introduction The renowned philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus noted in the fifth century BC that the world is in a state of flux, and two-and-a-half thousand years on all that has changed is the rate of change itself. Human activities are responsible for upping the pace, and a significant concern for biologists is whether animals and plants will be able to keep up. Many of the current key questions in conservation biology relate to responses to changes in the environment, and Institute scientists are at the forefront of research into these issues, as the reports from our research themes demonstrate (see pages 12–21). The Institute has recently been coming to terms with environmental change within as well as outside. Georgina Mace left in November, after 23 years of service, the last six as Director of Science. Her contribution here has been immense, assembling a team of talented and passionate scientists, and putting in place a science plan that addresses a wideranging set of questions of general theoretical interest and high conservation relevance. Over and above that, she leaves the Institute having fostered a spirit of community and purpose that really sets us apart from most other academic organisations. Georgina was this year awarded a CBE for her services to environmental science, and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate her on behalf of everybody at the Institute. It is also a time of change more generally at the higher echelons of ZSL. The recently appointed leaders of collections and science are soon to be joined by a new head of the field conservation department. The fresh perspectives that this will bring give us the chance to assess how we might more effectively capitalise on our unique position as part of an organisation addressing conservation questions from scientific, field and captive-breeding perspectives, and bring closer integration of these three branches of ZSL. We have similar opportunities to forge new connections in our partnership with Cambridge University, with Professor Bill Sutherland taking up the Chair in Conservation Biology there. So, while change can be daunting, it can also be a positive experience. As Hercalitus would have known, to stand still is really to move backwards. It is a great pleasure for me to be working with everyone here to help to take the Institute forward. Tim Blackburn Head of the Institute of Zoology 2 ZSL SCIEnTIFIC AWARDS 2006 ZSL recognises outstanding achievements in conservation and zoological research through its annual presentation of awards and prizes. The Frink Medal Presented to a professional scientist for substantial and original contributions to zoology. Awarded to: Professor Brian Charlesworth, University of Edinburgh, for his outstanding research in evolutionary genetics, including molecular evolution and variation, the evolution of genetic and sexual systems and the quantitative genetics of life-history traits. Scientific Medal Presented to research scientists with no more than 15 years postdoctoral experience for distinguished work in zoology. Awarded to: Dr Angus Buckling, University of Oxford, for his research on the evolutionary ecology of pathogenic microbes and their hosts in order to better understand the causes and consequences of coevolution between bacteria and their parasitic viruses. Professor Matt Keeling, University of Warwick, for his use of mathematical methodologies to analyse a wide range of topics in disease epidemiology and evolution, including childhood infections, foot-and-mouth disease and hostpathogen evolutionary dynamics. Professor Stuart West, University of Edinburgh, for his research on the evolution of social behaviour, such as cooperation and conflict within or between species, relatedness and the allocation of resources to male versus female reproduction. The Stamford Raffles Award Given annually for distinguished contributions to zoology by amateur zoologists. Awarded to: Peter Chandler for his extensive work on European diptera. The Marsh Award for Conservation Biology Awarded to: Professor Sarah Wanless, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Banchory, for her long-term research into the survival and breeding success of seabirds and significant contributions to our understanding of the effects of changes in marine ecosystems on seabird populations. The Marsh Award for Marine and Freshwater Conservation Awarded to: Professor Hal Whitehead, Dalhousie University, Canada, for significant contributions to the conservation of cetaceans, including the development of behavioural methods of analysis that are now widely used to better understand the social structure of whales and the effects of human disturbance on cetacean social behaviour. The Thomson/Zoological Record Award for Communicating Zoology Awarded to: Simon King in recognition of his extensive contributions to natural history film-making and public understanding and appreciation of wildlife. Thomas Henry Huxley Prize and Marsh Award Presented for the best zoological doctoral thesis produced in the UK. Awarded to: Dr Gina Galli, University of Birmingham, for her thesis Reptilian cardiovascular physiology: from whole animal to cardiac myocyte. Charles Darwin Award Presented for the best zoological project by an undergraduate student attending a university in the UK. Awarded to: Helen Weavers, University of Cambridge, for her project Characterising candidate interactors with nephrin, a protein that is mutated in kidney disease, using the fly as a model. The Prince Philip Prize and Marsh Award Presented for the best zoological project by an A-level student or equivalent. Awarded to: Louise Russell of Lingfield Notre Dame School, for her project An investigation into the density of freshwater shrimp in relation to dissolved oxygen concentrations within two lotic ecosystems. Honorary Fellowship Awarded to: Professor Sir John Lawton CBE, FRS, Chair of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, for his outstanding services to science and conservation. (left to right) Peter Chandler, Dr Angus Buckling, Nigel Robinson (Thomson Scientific), Professor Stuart West, Dr Gina Galli, Simon King, Louise Russell, Professor Sir Patrick Bateson, Marguerite Xerri, Professor Sir John Lawton, Brian Marsh (Marsh Christian Trust), Helen Weavers, Professor Matt Keeling, Professor Brian Charlesworth, Benjamin Weilgart-Whitehead, Professor Sarah Wanless introduction / awards 3 RESEARCH NEWS © Kate Jones © Noëlle Kümpel © Jaime Gosálvez Berenguer © Rohan Clarke 4 © Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse Over the year research undertaken at IoZ has continued to respond to a wide range of conservation issues. As a result of this work, some of which is described below, ever-more accurate predictions about population changes in the light of environmental pressures can be made to inform national and international decision-making processes. Disease dynamics and resistance to pathogens in California sea lions Each year large numbers of sea lions are stranded along the central California coast afflicted with a wide array of diseases. Many of these animals receive medical treatment, making it possible to obtain detailed data on disease status and pathogen load. There is evidence of individual-level genetic contribution to pathogen susceptibility and disease development in this species. For many diseases, it has not been possible to obtain a clear understanding of their cause and dynamics. For instance, leptospirosis – a bacterial infection that periodically causes high mortality of sea lions – was first identified in sea lions more than 30 years ago, but the source of infection, predisposing factors and means of transmission are still unknown. Another example is carcinoma, a highlyinvasive cancer whose cause and predisposing factors remain unclear. Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse investigated phylogeographic heterogeneity of pathogen burden and disease in California sea lions. This research, based on molecular genetics, assignment tests and temporal-spatial modelling to search for associations between diseases and sea lion colonies, has shown that movement between colonies separated by the peninsula of Baja California does occur, and could help explain the periodic outbreaks of leptospirosis that are observed on Californian coasts. These results suggest that certain colonies are ‘high-risk’ areas for carcinoma, implying the importance of biotic and abiotic factors in the development of cancer. This research is funded by the British Ecological Society and Morris Animal Foundation and is conducted in collaboration with the Marine Mammal Center, USA. Indicator Bats Program 2006 saw the launch of the Indicator Bats Program (iBats), a partnership between the IoZ and the Bat Conservation Trust, run by Kate Jones. Bats face an uncertain future with global warming and increasing human population pressures likely to impact their populations. Monitoring bat populations is critical to both inform and influence conservation policy and to ensure resources are directed to where they are most needed. A pioneering new survey technique has been developed: ‘Batmobiles’. Cars fitted with bat detectors are driven at night to record bat ultrasonic echolocation calls over large distances. These bat calls can then be identified to species and their populations monitored over time. With the help of funding from the Darwin Initiative, Rufford Foundation and Bat Conservation International, iBats has developed projects with trained volunteers in Romania, Moldavia, Hungary, Bulgaria and the UK, and is currently trialling the techniques in Mongolia, Madagascar, Thailand and New York. For more information see www.ibats.org.uk. Impact of tourism on mountain gorillas A study by Chris Sandbrook has quantified for the first time aspects of encounters between gorillas and tourists at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park that are likely to contribute to the risk of disease transmission. These include how close tourists get to gorillas, how close encounters are initiated, how long they last, and the age class of gorillas involved. The results showed that tourists got significantly closer to gorillas than the park rules allow (a mean of 2.76 m, compared to the rule of 7 m), and remained close for long periods. Contacts with the gorillas most vulnerable to disease, the juveniles, were closer but of shorter duration than those with adults. Contacts initiated by gorillas were closer but shorter than those initiated by tourists. These results, published in the journal Oryx, demonstrate that existing rules on tourist interactions with gorillas are failing and that the risk of disease transmission may be greater than previously believed. Behavioural and Population Ecology Research Theme A new research theme, Behavioural and Population Ecology (see page 14), has been established to strengthen the links between the study of individuals (in behavioural ecology) and populations (in population ecology). A wide diversity of research activities are carried out under this theme’s umbrella, incorporating studies of invertebrate and vertebrate species in both terrestrial and aquatic systems, using a combination of desk-, lab- and field-based approaches. Four key areas can be identified: (1) the human-wildlife interface, which particularly focuses on the bushmeat trade and human-predator conflict; (2) the individuals-population interface, which explores these links in a wide variety of taxa from birds and butterflies to amphibians and mammals; (3) monitoring theory and practice, which encompasses work ranging from radio-tagging wasps to camera-trapping cryptic mammals; (4) social biology and sexual selection, which investigates a range of areas including mate choice and signalling, optimal foraging, and collective action. Work in this new research theme is set to develop in a variety of exciting directions in the future. Assessment of DNA quality in koala sperm Koalas are listed as vulnerable to extinction in Queensland and parts of New South Wales. Loss of habitat is one of the major threats. However, females are also plagued with the sexuallytransmitted disease chlamydia, which can cut fertility rates by one-third. The Australian authorities would like to establish a bank of frozen sperm, which could be used to boost the genetic variation of koala populations, and which would contain samples screened to be free of chlamydia and other diseases. Although artificial insemination with fresh semen in koalas has now become highly successful, with more than 25 joeys to date, the freezing procedure seems to be a major limiting factor. Koala sperm nuclei have a tendency to decondense and swell following freezing and thawing, but it is uncertain whether this phenomenon is associated with the breakage and fragmentation of DNA. In collaboration with the University of Queensland and the University of Madrid, Bill Holt and his team have validated a new technique for the detection of DNA strand breakages in koala sperm. This is the first time that any such method has been applied to marsupial sperm. The technique disentangles DNA from its naturally coiled configuration, but if it has undergone severe strand breakages during treatments such as freezing and thawing it unravels like spaghetti and forms a visible halo around the sperm head. Marsupials appear to lack the ability to form strong cross-links between their DNA-chromatin strands, which probably makes their sperm much more labile than sperm from eutherian mammals, reducing the fertility of the frozen sperm. This technique has given us a new insight into the freezing damage undergone by koala sperm, and will allow appropriate countermeasures to be developed. Monitoring for reintroduction Reintroduction is a highly visible technique that is often used as a showcase for conservation. Birds are a major taxon in reintroduction projects; however, the overall success of these conservation campaigns is poor. Why this is and what we can do to improve success rates are important and largely unanswered issues. A study by John Ewen on reintroduced and remnant hihi Notiomystis cincta populations in New Zealand is focusing on robust population monitoring, predicting viability under different management scenarios and understanding the limiting roles of parasites and disease, in order to develop a science of reintroduction biology to address these problems. (a) California sea lion pups (b) Monitoring bat populations for the Indicator Bats Program (c) Assessing the impact of tourism on gorillas (d) Visualisation of DNA fragmentation in frozen-thawed koala spermatozoa. Sperm nuclei (red staining) are either compact, slightly hook-shaped and contain unfragmented (unfrag) DNA or swollen (frag) and contain DNA that has become fragmented during the freeze-thaw process (e) John Ewen with a purplecrowned fruit dove a c d e research news 5 b INDICATORS & ASSESSMENTS UNIT 6 The Indicators and Assessments Unit, headed by Jonathan Baillie, was formed in 2006 to consolidate work at ZSL on defining the status and trends of biodiversity. The Unit is a joint IoZ and ZSL Conservation Programmes initiative and is comprised of a total of 20 staff, students and interns. The five major projects of the Unit are the IUCN Sampled Red List Index, WWF/ZSL Living Planet Index, WCS/ZSL Wildlife Picture Index, Regional Red List Programme, and the EDGE of Existence programme. The IoZ is primarily responsible for the first three of these projects, all of which aim to produce scientifically robust global biodiversity indicators. In April 2002, at the Sixth Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the world’s governments committed themselves to actions to ‘achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss’. Setting this target has helped to highlight the lack of biodiversity indicators capable of measuring trends in global biodiversity. The IoZ is helping to address this knowledge gap by leading in the development and implementation of species-level biodiversity indicators that can be used to measure species trends in 2010 and beyond. Two of the indicators have been adopted by the scientific body of the CBD for immediate testing and will be essential for assessing the success or failure of the 2010 target. Temperate and Tropical Terrestrial Living Planet Indices, 1970-2003 1.8 1.6 Index (1970=1.0) 1.4 1.2 Temperate 1.0 0.8 Terrestrial Index 0.6 Tropical 0.4 0.2 0.0 1970 Mammals on the EDGE Scientists have often argued that some species are more valuable than others, and that the conservation of species representing more evolution should be prioritised. These sentiments have made little headway against the conservation orthodoxy, which values all species equally. One reason is the difficulty of estimating species originality in a robust fashion. A new technique which overcomes these problems has been developed at the IoZ and applied to over 4,500 species of mammals. The study, published in PLoS ONE, found that species which are both evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) receive relatively little conservation attention. The results suggest how conservation activities should be refocused in order to prevent large amounts of our evolutionary heritage being lost in the near future. The EDGE of Existence programme aims to address this issue by implementing conservation strategies for all of these species within the next five years. For more information see www.edgeofexistence.org/species/. 1980 1990 2000 03 to 2003. The LPI demonstrates that between 1970 and 2003 terrestrial species have declined on average by 31%, freshwater species by 28%, and marine species by 27%. The starkest indication of human impact on biological systems is in tropical ecosystems, where decline rates are greatest. The Indicators and Assessments Unit is now working to increase coverage of the index and address the discrepancy between data availability (more prevalent in temperate regions) and species richness (highest in tropical regions). Loss of Natural Habitat, by Biome, to 1990 (as % of estimated original area) Tundra (no significant change) Boreal forests/taiga Pre-1950 1950 –1990 Temperate coniferous forests Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Montane grasslands and shrublands Deserts and xeric shrublands Mangroves Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannahs, and shrublands Isaac, N.J.B, Turvey, S.T., Collen, B., Waterman, C. and Baillie, J.E.M. (2007) Mammals on the EDGE: Conservation priorities based on threat and phylogeny. PLoS ONE 2(3):e296. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000296. Flooded grasslands and savannahs Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub WWF/ZSL Living Planet Report A collaboration between WWF, IoZ and the Global Footprint Network resulted in the publication of the 2006 Living Planet Report. The Report, produced biennially, pulls together time-series data to compile two indicators of the earth’s well-being. The first, the Living Planet Index (LPI), measures biodiversity based on trends in more than 3,600 populations of 1,300 vertebrate species around the world. The second index, the Ecological Footprint, measures humanity’s demand on the biosphere. Significantly the carbon dioxide footprint, from the use of fossil fuels, was the fastest growing component of our global footprint, increasing more than ninefold from 1961 Temperate grasslands, savannahs, and shrublands 0 % 20 40 60 80 Loss of Natural Habitat to Agriculture, by Realm, 1950-1990 (as % of 1950 area) Nearctic (no significant change) Palaearctic To cropland To pasture Afrotropical Indomalayan Neotropical Australasian 0 % 1 2 3 4 5 6 indicators and assessments unit 7 COMMUNICATING SCIENCE A major part of IoZ’s work is facilitating the communication of information between researchers, professional zoologists and the public. We achieve this through a varied programme of meetings and the publication of scientific journals and books. © Adrian Walls © Aiden Weatherill 8 Publications Meetings Animal Conservation Scientific Meetings Now in its tenth year, Animal Conservation continues to provide a forum for the rapid publication of novel, peer-reviewed research into conservation of animal species and their habitats. The focus is on rigorous quantitative studies relating to populations, species or communities and their conservation. Subjects covered by the journal include population biology, epidemiology, evolutionary ecology, population genetics, biodiversity, biogeography and conservation economics. Scientific Meetings were held monthly throughout the academic year and covered a range of subjects, including Tropical deforestation: patterns, causes and consequences; Mongolia wildlife: market forces and massive declines and Evolution in the marine environment. Scientific meetings are free and open to anyone who would like to attend. Journal of Zoology The Journal of Zoology, our pre-eminent journal dedicated to academic zoology, continues to attract an increasing number of high-quality research papers and reviews. Published monthly, the Journal promotes hypothesis-driven studies that are of interest to all readers of zoology, and provides comprehensive coverage of the latest research. Conservation Biology book series This series includes titles which reflect our research interests. Coral Reef Conservation, edited by Isabelle Côté and John D. Reynolds, was published during the year. Coral reefs contain the highest diversity of marine organisms and as shallow-water coastal habitats they support a wide range of economically and culturally important activities. However, their accessibility makes reefs vulnerable to local threats including over-fishing, pollution and physical damage. Reefs also face global problems, such as climate change, which may be responsible for recent widespread coral mortality. Coral Reef Conservation summarises the current status of reefs, the problems they face, and discusses potential solutions. teasing Prism Glasses. Visitors also had the chance to meet scientists who are actively involved in sense-related research. Each day a different scientist gave a 15-minute talk and engaged in lively discussion about their work. During the 16-day run, Sense-sational Science was enjoyed by over 5,000 members of the public and school children. Symposia Science for Conservation Seminar Series In October ZSL hosted an international symposium Recreational hunting, conservation and rural livelihoods: science and practice, organised by Bill Adams, Barney Dickson, Jon Hutton, Robin Sharp and Kai Wollscheid. This symposium facilitated important debate on controversial issues that are fundamental to understanding the role of recreational hunting in wildlife conservation and rural development. This series provides our staff and students with the opportunity to learn more about the work of visiting researchers, collaborators and invited speakers. A wide range of subjects were covered during the year, including Ecology and conservation of Eurasian lynx in the multi-use landscapes of Scandinavia and A molecular perspective on the evolution of echolocation and flight in bats. A second symposium held in May, Zoo experiences and the human dimensions of saving wildlife, organised by John Fraser, Carol Saunders and Thomas Webler, examined current research in conservation psychology in order to review how social processes and concepts of community influence environmental action. Stamford Raffles Lecture The 2007 Lecture was given by Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics, University College London. Is man just another animal? examined the similarities and differences between human DNA and that of our closest relatives, looking beyond comparative anatomy to ask whether the science helps us to understand what we are as human beings, rather than merely as rather unspecialised primates. House Sparrow Conference In February, IoZ was pleased to host a two-day meeting with the RSPB and the University of Ghent focusing on the decline of the house sparrow in Europe. Topics of discussion included census techniques and the problems associated with consistently defining urban habitats across Europe. More hands-on issues, such as measuring body condition, health status and immunocompetence, as well as techniques for trapping and colour-ringing of sparrows in urban areas, were also discussed. Daria Dadam, a PhD student at IoZ, is currently investigating possible causes of house sparrow declines in Greater London in collaboration with the RSPB and the University of Liverpool. a b International Zoo Yearbook Zoo and wildlife veterinarians are integral members of the team of experts required for wildlife conservation. In Volume 41, Animal Health and Conservation, Guest Editor R. Eric Miller (WildCare Institute, Saint Louis Zoo) brings together work on various aspects of conservation, biosurveillance, regional management planning, reintroductions, disease risk assessment, faecal steroid monitoring, West Nile virus and conservation medicine. Topically there are two detailed reviews on the current situation for amphibian chytrid fungus and avian influenza. National Science and Engineering Week In April we were delighted to host Sense-sational Science, an interdisciplinary science event held at ZSL London Zoo for National Science and Engineering Week 2007. Funded by NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), ZSL and the RCUK (Research Councils UK), the event explored how animal senses are essential for survival, why scientists study them and how this scientific research has enlightened technology and benefited society. Each sense was explained using a variety of interactive experiments, including Stinky Smell Pipes, Giant Spider Web and brain- c e g d f (a) Animal Conservation series (b) Carol Saunders, John Fraser and Thomas Webler, organisers of the May symposium (c) Professor Steve Jones presented the Stamford Raffles Lecture in June (d) Sense-sational Science, Giant Spider Web (e) The Sense-sational Science team: Craig Childs (UCL), Katrien Van Look (IoZ), Seirian Sumner (IoZ), David Hitchcock (IoZ) (f) International Zoo Yearbook (g) The decline of the house sparrow was the focus of a two-day meeting in February communicating science 9 funding As usual, we received our annual core income from HEFCE via the University of Cambridge; however, this year 48% of our income came from other sources, particularly the Research Councils and government departments. In total, 54 new grants were received during the year. Alex Rogers received funding from the Lighthouse Foundation for £87,300 to undertake a project on the deep-water coral habitats of the Azores using the submersible Lula of the Rebikoff Foundation. An additional grant of £126,000 was awarded from the Leverhulme Trust for an exciting project that will improve our understanding of the relationships between the occurrence of deep-sea corals and the physical environment, and explore important aspects of coral ecology and resilience to human impacts. We also received a grant of £150,000 to initiate the International Program on the State of the Oceans (IPSO) from the J.M. Kaplan Fund, USA. This programme will assess how oceans are changing and how human activities can be managed in order to restore or prevent further degradation of ocean ecosystems. Bill Jordan and Kate Ciborowski were awarded £316,700 to study how changes in the level of expression of odorant receptors may be involved in imprinting Atlantic salmon to their home stream before they make their migration to the ocean. By increasing the level of expression of receptors for odours they experience as juveniles, adult salmon may subsequently be able to use the same odours as orientation cues in the return migration to spawn. Understanding the mechanisms underlying homing behaviour, which determines population structure in the species, can help in predicting the outcome of deliberate or inadvertent releases of non-native fish into natural populations. 10 In May the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, coordinated by ZSL and project managed by Rob Deaville, received a grant of £1,053,000 from DEFRA and the Welsh Assembly Government to investigate whale, dolphin, harbour porpoise and turtle strandings in the UK for the next three years. Scottish Agricultural College, Inverness, the Natural History Museum and Marine Environmental Monitoring are partners in the CSIP, undertaking work in specific regions of the UK. Currently around 750 stranded cetaceans are reported annually in the UK. Renewed funding of the programme will ensure that the national cetacean and turtle strandings databases and tissue banks will continue to support a broad range of scientific research activity. Incidences of entanglement in fishing gear (by-catch), current or emerging diseases and other causes of mortality will be monitored in order to identify any significant threats to the conservation status of the species. For the first time, the CSIP will also investigate incidences of basking shark strandings in the UK. Congratulations are due to Seirian Sumner (far right), who was awarded a fellowship of £10,000 in the first L’Oréal UK Fellowships for Women in Science. Designed to promote the vital importance of ensuring greater participation of women in science, the awards are run in partnership with the UK National Commission for UNESCO, the Royal Institution of Great Britain and the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. The award will help further Seirian’s research into the origins of social evolution. Funding organisations Yellow seahorse Hippocampus kuda. © Ben Spink Amphibian Conservation Research Trust Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBRSC) British Antarctic Survey British Ecological Society British Herpetological Society British Wildlife Health Association Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Charities Advisory Trust Chinese Academy of Sciences Copenhagen Zoo Darwin Initiative (DEFRA) Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Esmee Fairbairn Foundation Field Conservation Fund Genetics Society Heptagon Fund Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Howard Buffett Foundation Imperial College London Isaac Newton Trust IUCN L’Oréal Leverhulme Trust Lighthouse Foundation Marine Resources Assessment Group National Environment Research Council (NERC) Natural England New Zealand Department of Conservation People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) QinetiQ Research Councils UK Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Trust Rufford Foundation Tanzania Guides Ltd The Fishmongers’ Company The Royal Society Thomas Doherty-Bone UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre Universities Foundation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) University of Cambridge University of London Central Research Fund University of Swansea World Wildlife Fund Canada World Wildlife Fund International A grant from the Royal Society has enabled us to show experimentally that parental body size and age impacts upon the early post-natal growth rate of seahorses; larger parents produce offspring that grow more rapidly during the first three weeks of life than those of smaller, younger parents. We also examined mechanisms of fertilisation in this species and showed that seahorses produce the lowest number of spermatozoa, and the most efficient sperm, of any fish species studied to date. These studies represent collaboration between the Institute of Zoology and the London Zoo Aquarium. See page 21 Institute of Zoology Income, 2006/07 1 August 2006 – 31 July 2007 Total Income £3,857,652 Core Grant £1,987,272 Research Grants & Contracts £1,705,290 (Other Organisations £973,616) (Government Bodies £254,370) (Research Councils £477,304) Other Income £165,090 funding 11 Daily energy expenditure (kg/day) 100,000 10,000 small prey 1,000 large prey 100 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1,000 The Biodiversity and Macroecology Research Theme aims to describe patterns of diversity in the biology, ecology and distribution of animal species and their habitats at regional and global scales, and to test hypotheses about the evolutionary and ecological processes that may explain the origin and maintenance of this diversity. We also aim to work with practitioners to apply this knowledge in setting priorities for conservation action. © Jakob Bro-Jørgensen BIODIVERSITY & MACROECOLOGY Predator mass (kg) follow a three-fourths scaling with body mass. However, when each dietary group is considered individually they both display a shallower scaling. This suggests that carnivores at the upper size limits of each group are constrained by intake and adopt energy-conserving strategies to counter this. Analysing the balance between energy intake and expenditure across a range of species, we predict that mammalian carnivores should have a maximum body mass of one ton. Thus, mammalian carnivores are relatively small compared with the largest extinct terrestrial herbivorous mammals, such as the indricothere, which weighed around 15 tons. The largest existing carnivore, the polar bear, is only around half a ton, while the largest known extinct carnivores, such as the short-faced bear, weighed around one ton. This study suggests that those extremely large carnivores would have been heavily reliant on abundant large prey, helping to explain why the largest modern mammalian carnivores are rare and vulnerable to extinction. Carbone, C., Teacher, A. and Rowcliffe, J.M. (2007) The costs of carnivory. PLoS Biology 5: 363-368. Spatial overlap in the worldwide distribution of mammals, birds and amphibians The costs of carnivory Carnivores fall into two dietary groups based on the energetic requirements of their feeding strategies: small-bodied species, which feed mostly on prey smaller than themselves, and largebodied species, which prefer prey around their own size. While carnivores around the size of a lynx or larger can obtain higher net energy intake by switching to relatively large prey, the difficulty of catching and subduing these animals means that a large-prey specialist would expend twice as much energy as a small-prey specialist of equivalent body size. Across all species, energy expenditure and intake both 12 Global conservation strategies commonly assume that different taxonomic groups show congruent geographical patterns of diversity. For example, the conservation of biodiversity hotspots has been proposed as a ‘silver-bullet’ strategy, where the distribution of extinction-prone species in one group can therefore act as a surrogate for vulnerable species in other groups when conservation decisions are being made. However, the validity of these assumptions remains unclear because previous tests have been limited in both geographical and taxonomic extent. We used a database on the global distribution of 19,349 living bird, (left) Estimates of daily energy expenditure (DEE) (kJ) against carnivore mass (kilograms) for 14 species, together with the piecewise regression fit (black line). Our model analysis predicted a step increase in DEE (by a factor of around 2.3) as a result of the switch to hunting large prey. The vertical line represents the predicted threshold of 14.5 kg where predators switch from small to large prey. Estimates of DEE were obtained from different sources, triangles represent estimates based on doubly labelled water, circles are based on behavioural observations, and squares are based on oxygen consumption in captive studies mammal and amphibian species to show that, although the distribution of overall species richness is very similar among these groups, congruence in the distribution of rare and threatened species is markedly lower. Congruence is especially low among the very rarest species. Cross-taxon congruence is also highly scale dependent, being particularly low at the finer spatial resolutions relevant to real protected areas. 'Hotspots' of rarity and threat are therefore largely non-overlapping across groups, as are areas chosen to maximise species complementarity. Overall, our results indicate that 'silver-bullet' conservation strategies alone will not deliver efficient conservation solutions. Instead, priority areas for biodiversity conservation must be based on highresolution data from multiple taxa. certain mammals did experience a rapid period of diversification and evolution. However, most of these groups have since either died out completely or declined in diversity. This research indicates that our 'ancestors', and those of all other mammals on earth now, began to radiate around the time of a sudden increase in the temperature of the planet – ten million years after the death of the dinosaurs. The research was carried out in collaboration with Imperial College London. Bininda-Emonds, O.R.P., Cardillo, M., Jones, K.E., MacPhee, R.D.E., Beck, R.M.D., Grenyer, R., Price, S.A., Vos, R.A., Gittleman, J.L. and Purvis, A. (2007) The delayed rise of present-day mammals. Nature 446: 507-512. Monotremata Marsupialia Afrotheria Xenarthra Laurasiatheria Euarchonotglires Grenyer, R., Orme, C.D.L., Jackson, S.F., Thomas, G.H., Davies, R.G., Davies, T.J., Jones, K.E., Olson, V.A., Ridgely, R.S., Rasmussen, P.C., Ding, T-S., Bennett, P.M., Blackburn, T.M., Gaston, K.J., Gittleman, J.L. and Owens, I.P.F. (2006) Global distribution and conservation of rare and threatened vertebrates. Nature 444: 93-96. Mammal ‘tree of life’ New research published in the journal Nature on a new, complete 'tree of life' tracing the history of all 4,500 mammals on earth, shows that they did not diversify as a result of the death of the dinosaurs. It contradicts the previously accepted theory that the Mass Extinction Event (MEE) that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago prompted the rapid rise of the mammals we see on the earth today. The research shows that many of the genetic 'ancestors' of the mammals we see around us today existed 85 million years ago, and survived the meteor impact that is thought to have killed the dinosaurs. However, throughout the Cretaceous epoch, when dinosaurs walked the earth, these mammal species were relatively few in number, and were prevented from diversifying and evolving in ecosystems dominated by dinosaurs. The tree of life shows that after the MEE, biodiversity and macroecology 13 (left) Tagged wasp (below) Two adult chacma baboons at the study site related colonies in a viscous population structure. The potential importance of this strategy as a component of the kin-selected benefits for a social insect worker has previously been overlooked due to methodological difficulties in quantifying and studying drifting. Radio-tagging technology reveals extreme nest drifting behaviour in a eusocial insect The advantage of social information for group-living animals In groups of related individuals, group members may gain fitness benefits by helping raise closely related young at the cost of sacrificing their own direct reproduction (kin-selection theory). In the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants), females are more closely related to their sisters (relatedness = 0.75) than to their own offspring (r = 0.5) because of their haplodiploid genetic sexdetermination system. Nest drifting in eusocial insects (where workers move between nests) presents a challenge to this paradigm, since a worker should remain as a helper on her natal colony, rather than visit other colonies to which she is less closely related. The importance of this drifting behaviour and its implications for kin-selection theory are poorly understood because of the difficulties in studying it, especially in natural populations. We used a novel monitoring technique, radio frequency identification tags, to quantify nest drifting in a natural population of the primitively eusocial wasp, Polistes canadensis, in Panama. We were astonished to find that 56% of P. canadensis females drifted between nests, exceeding previous records of drifting in natural populations by more than 30-fold. This drifting behaviour cannot be explained through social parasitism, queen succession, mistakes in nest identity or methodological bias. Instead, workers appear to gain indirect fitness benefits by helping on several Sumner, S., Lucas, E., Barker, J. and Isaac, N.J.B. (2007) Radio-tagging technology reveals extreme nest drifting in a eusocial insect. Current Biology 17: 140-145. Correct decision-making is crucial if animals are to be successful at finding food and avoid being eaten themselves. For group-living animals, individuals can make such decisions based upon personal information they gather directly from their environment (e.g. identifying an approaching predator), or by using the social information that other group members provide (e.g. seeing group members fleeing may indicate an approaching predator). These choices often relate to an animal’s immediate survival and so it is vitally important that decisions made are based upon the most reliable information available. The Tsaobis Baboon Project in Namibia has been working towards understanding how animals use information and how this relates to decision-making in a group situation, by using a combination of theoretical predictions with natural and experimental observations. We applied a © Andrew King Behavioural & Population Ecology © Aiden Weatherill 14 Our research in behavioural ecology and population ecology has two major interlinked aims: to test fundamental hypotheses in behavioural and population ecology and to use our knowledge of the behavioural and population ecology of wild species, and the human populations that interact with them, to inform conservation policy and management. Social information (I s) n=5 1 1.0 0.8 n = (left) Relative quality of social versus personal information. Plot of quality of social information (Is) against the quality of personal information (Ip). Lines plotted are for odd group sizes (n) up to 51. To the left-hand side of the dashed line through the origin (n=1) are represented all scenarios where an individual should use social information; to the right-hand side of the line, an individual would do better to rely on its own personally acquired information. 3 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 (below) Colobus angolensis is a flagship species for the coastal forests of Kenya and the region is recognised as one of the world's 25 biodiversity hotspots 1.0 Personal information (I p) King, A.J. and Cowlishaw, G. (2007) When to use social information: the advantage of large group size in individual decision-making. Biology Letters 3: 137-139. Movement of a forest primate in a complex agricultural landscape unobservable in the lifetime of a normal research project. This study has overcome this problem by enlisting the help of the people who live and work in the habitat of interest, effectively extending the available information well beyond anything a researcher could achieve by direct observation. In order to understand how movements of colobus are influenced by habitat characteristics in the farmland surrounding the forest patches, over 300 locals were interviewed to find out if they had ever seen colobus outside the forests, and if so, where. The results showed that 28% of those questioned had seen colobus up to 4 km from the nearest forest, and that observations were much more likely where tall vegetation was present, such as mangrove, scrubland or fruit plantation. This provides important information to guide management of the wider landscape, not just the forest fragments, to improve the chances of persistence for colobus in Kenya. Anderson, J., Rowcliffe, J.M. and Cowlishaw, G. (2007) Does the matrix matter? A forest primate in a complex agricultural landscape. Biological Conservation 135: 212-222. Gottelli, D., Jinliang, W., Bashir, S. and Durant, S.M. (2007) Genetic analysis reveals promiscuity among female cheetahs. Proceedings of the Royal Society B DOI 10.1098/rspb.2007.0502 Promiscuity among female cheetahs Behavioural data from IoZ’s long-term research study of cheetahs in the Serengeti was combined with genetic data resulting from non-invasive sampling to unveil the mating system of this population. In wild populations it is widely assumed that males are promiscuous while females are coy. Male reproductive success increases © Sarah Durant As land use intensifies, natural habitats are increasingly divided into fragments. Once-continuous populations come to exist in systems of sub-populations with little connection between them – known as metapopulations. For example, in south coastal Kenya, black-and-white colobus Colobus angolensis live in 124 different forest patches, separated by a mosaic of farmland and scrub. In such systems, the degree of connection between fragments is key to the viability of the whole metapopulation, and effective conservation in this environment therefore requires the habitat between the fragments to be managed appropriately. A major difficulty with achieving this is the fact that, while observations of movements are essential to understanding the habitat features that are important, movements are usually so rare as to be with multiple mating but the potential benefits that females gain by mating with more than one male have long been debated. Mating tactics in carnivores are linked to their spacing patterns where, in general, males occupy large ranges that encompass those of several females, giving males access to several sexually receptive females. In contrast, female cheetahs are non-territorial and move over extensive home ranges that include several much smaller territories of males. This pattern of territoriality is unique and brings females into contact with several males making polyandry possible within this system. To test for evidence of multiple paternity, and hence polyandry, within a litter we used a statistical method that partitioned each litter into full-siblings and inferred the father from a pool of sampled candidate males. The analysis showed that female cheetahs are promiscuous with evidence of high rates of multiple paternity in litters with more than one cub. Despite the inclusion of 70% of known adult males in the last years of this study the allocation of paternity was low. This seems to indicate that males living outside the study area contributed substantially to reproduction and highlights the importance that high mobility plays in cheetah ecology and conservation. The understanding of the breeding system of this threatened species will aid in the development of future management plans aimed at the long-term maintenance of genetic variability among fragmented populations. © Julie Anderson simple mathematical formula developed by an eighteenth-century political scientist, Marquis de Condorcet, to provide a theoretical framework for understanding when individuals should make decisions based on their own personal information or rely on social information pooled from many group members. We found that social information allows less well-informed members of large groups to reach a correct decision with the same probability as more well-informed members of small groups. Thus, animals in larger groups may be able to minimise the costs of collecting personal information without impairing their ability to make correct decisions. These findings provide us with new insights into the use of personal and social information in animal groups and their consequences for baboons and other group-living species. behavioural and population ecology 15 1.5 Selection coefficient (right) A figure from the paper showing how some alleles are positively selected for while others have negative selection 1.0 0.5 0.0 -0.5 -1.0 DAA* 1001 DAA* 1202 DAA* 0901 DAA* 0601 DAA* 0602 DAA* 0401 DAA* 0501 DAA* 0303 DAA* 0304 DAA* 0301 DAA* 0302 DAA* 0101 DAA* 0201 -1.5 Genetic variation, fitness & adaptability Sasa-DAA allele The aim of the Genetic Variation, Fitness and Adaptability Research Theme is to develop and apply empirical and theoretical methods to describe patterns of relatedness among individuals, populations and species. Our research aims to test hypotheses on the effects of genetic diversity on individual fitness and population persistence and to apply this knowledge of genetic structure and genetic diversity/fitness relationships to the management of animal populations. Selection on immune response genes in Atlantic salmon Natural selection by pathogens is thought to have a major role in determining levels of variation in host immune response genes, including major histocompatibility (MH) genes which code for proteins which recognise pathogens. However, there have been few empirical demonstrations of selection acting on MH loci in natural populations. In collaboration with laboratories in Ireland, The Netherlands and Norway we set out to determine whether selection on MH genes has fitness consequences for wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in natural conditions. We compared observed genotype frequencies of Atlantic salmon surviving in a river 6 months after their introduction as eggs with frequencies expected from parental crosses. © Elvira de Eyto © Phil McGinnity (above) The study site for Atlantic salmon study (left) The fish trap at the study site 16 We found significant differences between expected and observed genotype frequencies at one MH gene (the class II alpha locus, Sasa-DAA), but not at a MH class I-linked microsatellite or at seven non-MH-linked microsatellite loci. These results indicate that the differences we see at the MH class II alpha locus were a result of pathogen-mediated natural selection, rather than any demographic event. We also show that survival was associated with additive allelic effects at the MH class II alpha locus, rather than heterozygote advantage. Our results have implications for both the conservation of wild salmon stocks and the management of disease in hatchery fish. We conclude that natural or hatchery populations have the best chance of dealing with episodic and variable disease challenges if MH genetic variation is preserved both within and among populations. De Eyto, E., McGinnity, P., Consuegra, S., Coughlan, J., Tufto, J., Farrell, K., Megens, H.-J., Jordan, W.C., Cross, T. and Stet, R.J.M. (2007) Natural selection acts on Atlantic salmon major histocompatibility (MH) variability in the wild. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 274: 861-869. Maintaining species barriers through mate choice Determining the factors which produce and/or maintain reproductive isolation between closely-related species is important in understanding how environmental change might affect species composition within ecosystems. The grasshoppers Chorthippus brunneus and Chorthippus jacobsi are highly differentiated for male mating signals, and form a mosaic hybrid zone in northern Spain. At some sites within this zone many hybrids are observed, while at others few hybrids are found. Such bimodality in incidence of hybrids among sites may reflect relatively recent contacts between parental genotypes, local variation in levels of assortative mating or selection against hybrids. With colleagues from the University of Leeds we played back parental and F1 hybrid BB3 (C. brunneus) EL = 0.10 Mean SL = 0.005 CV SL = 0.15 Echeme length Syllable length (left) A figure from the paper showing differences in parental songs (top and bottom) and hybrid songs. It shows the differences between parentals and intermediate nature of hybrids (below left) Grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus) 0.05 secs (below) The hydroids Nemertesia ramosa and Sertularella gayi (top) and Halecium halecinum (bottom) off Plymouth, Devon, UK JB2 (F1, C. brunneus mother) EL = 0.31 Mean SL = 0.005 CV SL = 0.26 JJ2 (F1, C. jacobsi) EL = 0.41 Mean SL = 0.021 CV SL = 0.33 © Roger Butlin male songs to parental and hybrid females, all reared under common conditions. These experiments revealed positive assortative preferences in both C. brunneus and C. jacobsi females, supporting a direct role of male mating signals in female choice. All female classes showed reduced responsiveness to F1 hybrid male songs. Such sexual selection against hybrids is consistent with the narrow width of the hybrid zone observed in the field. These results have implications for the genetic structure of the hybrid zone and models of speciation. Bridle, J.R., Saldamando, C.I., Koning, W. and Butlin, R.K. (2006) Assortative preferences and discrimination by females against hybrid male song in the grasshoppers Chorthippus brunneus and Chorthippus jacobsi (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19: 1248-1256. The oceans are the cradle of life containing a higher diversity of phyla, classes and orders than terrestrial or freshwater ecosystems. However, about 1.5 million species have been described from terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems compared to just 0.2 million from the oceans. This may partially reflect the open nature of marine ecosystems that allow large-scale dispersal of species across great distances reducing opportunities for allopatric speciation over geological timescales. However, it may also reflect our poor understanding of the diversity of many groups of marine animals. The need to catalogue diversity is urgent because of the potential of climate change and human impacts to cause extinctions of marine species and the fact that ecosystem function is related to biodiversity. The fact that each species has a unique sequence of DNA contained within the genome has provided marine scientists with a new tool to aid in the identification of known species and the discovery of previously unknown biodiversity. The nematodes are a group of tiny unsegmented worms that include both free-living and parasitic species. They often dominate the communities of small-sized animals in the sediments of the seabed in terms of abundance and diversity. However, nematodes have relatively few morphological characters on which to base identification and resolving species of these worms is difficult and requires specialised taxonomists. We have evaluated the nuclear 18S ribosomal RNA gene for use in identification of marine nematodes. This gene has both conserved and rapidly evolving sections enabling us to derive information useful in studying the evolution of this group of animals and in the identification of individual species. As well as identifying known nematode species our work has revealed the existence of previously unknown species © Carlos Moura, Institute of Zoology and University of Aveiro BJ3 (F1, C. jacobsi mother) EL = 0.32 Mean SL = 0.020 CV SL = 0.24 DNA barcoding and species discovery in the oceans occurring in the coastal waters of Britain and elsewhere in the world. We are using this gene to study the diversity of nematodes in areas of the deep sea with markedly different levels of food supply. We are also applying similar DNA barcoding methods to study the diversity of other animal groups that are difficult to identify, including hydroids and corals from coastal habitats and the deep sea. Bhadury, P., Austen, M.C., Bilton, D.T., Lambshead, P.J.D., Rogers A.D. and Smerdon, G. (2006) Development and evaluation of a DNA-barcoding approach for the rapid identification of nematodes. Marine Ecology Progress Series 320: 1-9. Meldal, B.H.M., Debenham, N.J., De Ley, P., De Ley, I.T., Vanfleteren, J.R., Vierstraete, A.R., Bert, W., Borgonie, G., Moens, T., Tyler, P.A., Austen, M.C., Blaxter, M.L., Rogers, A.D. and Lambshead, P.J.D. (2007) An improved molecular phylogeny of the Nematoda with special emphasis on marine taxa. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 42: 622-636. Bhadury, P., Austen, M.C., Bilton, D.T., Lambshead, P.J.D., Rogers, A.D. and Smerdon, G.R. (2007) Exploitation of archived marine nematodes – a hot lysis DNA extraction protocol for molecular studies. Zoologica Scripta 36(1): 93-98. Bhadury, P., Austen, M.C., Bilton, D.T., Lambshead, P.J.D., Rogers, A.D. and Smerdon, G.R. (2006) Molecular detection of marine nematodes from environmental samples – overcoming eukaryotic interference. Microbial Aquatic Ecology 44: 97-103. genetic variation, fitness and adaptability 17 Wildlife Epidemiology The Wildlife Epidemiology Research Theme aims to identify where disease is a threat to wildlife conservation, either as a primary cause of species declines, or as a threat to remnant wildlife populations, investigate the emergence of disease as a conservation threat and to develop an understanding of the consequences of changes in wildlife disease epidemiology, both to wildlife conservation and welfare and to human health and welfare, particularly where these changes are driven by anthropogenic forces. Predicting the spread of West Nile virus to Galapagos Emerging infectious diseases are a key threat to conservation and public health, yet predicting and preventing their emergence is notoriously difficult. We devised a predictive model for the introduction of a zoonotic vector-borne pathogen by considering each of the pathways by which it may be introduced © Andrew Cunningham (right) Galapagos giant tortoises (Geochelone nigra guntheri) in a conservation breeding centre on the island of Isabela, Galapagos. Should it arrive in the archipelago, the effects of West Nile virus infection on this endangered species are unknown, but could be catastrophic for the survival of these iconic giants 18 Galapagos and measures that can be taken to reduce the risk of introduction. The introduction of this highly pathogenic virus to this unique World Heritage Site could have devastating consequences, similar to those seen following introductions of pathogens into other endemic island faunas. Our model identified the transport of mosquitoes on airplanes as the highest risk for West Nile virus introduction. Pathogen dissemination through avian migration and the transportation of day-old chickens appeared to be less important pathways. Infected humans and mosquitoes transported in sea containers, in tyres, or by wind all represented much lower risk. Our riskassessment framework has broad applicability to other pathogens and other regions and depends only on the availability of data on the transport of goods and animals and the epidemiology of the pathogen. Kilpatrick, A.M., Daszak, P., Goodman, S.J., Rogg, H., Kramer, L.D., Cedeño, V. and Cunningham, A.A. (2006) Predicting pathogen introduction: West Nile virus spread to Galapagos. Conservation Biology 20: 1224-1231. Invasive amphibian species and the emergence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis to a new area and comparing the relative risk of each pathway. This framework is an adaptation of pest introduction models and estimates the number of infectious individuals arriving in a location and the duration of their infectivity. The framework was used to determine the most likely route for the introduction of West Nile virus to In collaboration with the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology of Imperial College London and the University of Victoria, Canada, researchers at IoZ examined the potential relationship between the emergence of the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and the global trade in amphibians. The first study examined the prevalence of the fungus in populations of one of the most invasive vertebrate species in existence today, the North American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana). Bullfrog populations were sampled across the Americas, Europe and Asia. We found that, with the exception of bullfrog tadpoles collected in Japan, all populations of bullfrogs contained animals infected with the Relative Number of Infection Bacteria (right) Schematic representation of the immune-related genes that are important at different times during the course of an infection (Innate Immunity) (Adaptive Immunity) Days after Infection potential to exacerbate the situation. Currently, there are no international standards in place with regard to this disease, and while intentionally introducing exotic amphibians into countries like Great Britain is illegal, introductions of exotic amphibians and their diseases do occur. fungus. However, Japanese researchers have since shown that bullfrogs in Japan also are infected with the fungus. Due to the fact that bullfrogs are asymptomatic when infected, they may be acting as reservoirs and vectors of the disease across a broad geographic range. A subsequent review of the relationship between introduced amphibians, amphibian trade and the fungal disease revealed the potential for trade to contribute to the distribution of the fungus at a global scale. The number of animals involved in the international trade of amphibians is in the millions. By the 1960s, over 140 species of amphibians were internationally traded for the purposes of research, and the global food market may generate up to 7,000 tons of amphibians per annum. Commercial practices also regularly bring traded animals into direct contact with wild populations. An examination of the available literature on amphibian introductions, many of which are the direct result of the amphibian trade, and fungal infection showed that nearly 30 species of introduced amphibians are known to be infected with the fungus. The majority of species identified are asymptomatic when infected. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is implicated in the decline and possible extinction of dozens of species of amphibians. Whether the amphibian trade is responsible for the emergence of this disease we may never know, but it is clear that trade practices have the different pathogens and that operate at different times following infection. Such findings urge caution when drawing general conclusions about diseasethreats from the study of just one part of the immunogenetic system. We propose a shift in the current paradigm by using new approaches involving (1) a casetailored selection of genes relevant to the infectious disease studied or (2) largescale single nucleotide polymorphism surveys of immune genes. Garner, T.W.J., Perkins, M., Govindarajulu, P., Seglie, D., Walker, S.J., Cunningham, A.A. and Fisher, M.C. (2006) The emerging amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis globally infects introduced populations of the North American bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana. Biology Letters 2: 455-459. © Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse Fisher, M.C. and Garner, T.W.J. (2007) The relationship between the introduction of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, the international trade in amphibians and introduced amphibian species. Fungal Biology Reviews 21: 2-9. Understanding immunogenetics © Dina El Tounsey-Garner Infectious diseases are important demographic and evolutionary forces of natural populations. This is because under natural conditions, populations and individuals are constantly challenged by pathogens. These challenges have led to the evolution of host immune responses, which in turn influence the ability of pathogens to avoid host defences. Such interactions, tightly controlled by genes, are particularly interesting for addressing questions on evolution. From a conservation perspective, the increasing emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases as a serious threat to wildlife, particularly small or endangered populations where sudden demographic declines could be catastrophic, warrant a more complete understanding of how resistance to infectious disease is regulated in natural populations. To date, most studies on the genetic regulation of disease resistance (i.e. immunogenetics) have focused on a particular genetic region, the major histocompatibility complex, involved with the presentation of infectious agents to the immune system. However, research on domestic and laboratory animals has highlighted the importance of many other genes that regulate diverse immune responses to We have compiled a list of known immune genes and functions and discuss the challenges and problems that arise from our proposed approach, as well as solutions to deal with them. We conclude that this wider approach to immunogenetics will be integral to understanding disease dynamics and assessing epidemic risks as a step towards predicting and – potentially – preventing future disease-driven demographic declines of threatened and endangered populations. Acevedo-Whitehouse, K. and Cunningham, A. (2006) Is MHC enough for understanding wildlife immunogenetics? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21(8): 433-438. wildlife epidemiology 19 Reproductive biology (below) Sheep oviductal cells cultured in the laboratory showing cytoskeletal proteins (green) and cell nuclei (blue) 20 Our understanding of reproductive biology comes largely from a small number of intensely studied model species, but nature presents a bewildering array of adaptations with almost every new species we examine. In the Reproductive Biology Research Theme we aim both to explore and understand some of this diversity and to use some of this knowledge for the development of technologies that may have practical applications. In addition, we aim to find out whether and how environmental change may affect reproductive and developmental processes. Sperm transport in mammals; what is the role of the oviduct? Sperm storage in the female reproductive tract has been extensively documented in a range of vertebrates including sharks, salamanders, snakes and turtles, as well as many birds and mammals. Some of these species store spermatozoa for several months or even years; in the laboratory we can only manage a few days unless the spermatozoa are frozen. How do they do it? We now know that the oviduct is more than either a sperm storage organ or a conduit leading the sperm towards the egg. We and others have previously shown that the oviduct responds to the arrival of spermatozoa by initiating novel gene transcription and protein synthesis, presumably preparing the reproductive tract for the eventual development of an embryo. It is also likely that the oviduct is involved in sperm selection processes (Satake et al., 2007), either by impeding the progress of poor quality spermatozoa or by the involvement of recognition processes. We still know little about this complexity. In collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College, the University of Sheffield and Genus Breeding Ltd, we have been investigating the role of oviductal plasma membrane proteins in maintaining sperm viability (Sostaric et al., 2006), using cattle, pigs and sheep (Lloyd et al., 2007) as model species. We have shown that cultured oviductal cells are able to support sperm viability in vitro and have recently found that one protein in particular (heat shock cognate protein 70; Hsc70) seems to be important in enhancing sperm survival in several species. This work suggests that the proteins involved in sperm survival may not be species-specific, something that may be important in helping to improve the success of artificial insemination techniques for the captive breeding of wild species, especially if the spermatozoa need to be transported from one place to another. Lloyd, R.E., Badia, E., Watson, P.F. and Holt, W.V. (2007) Prolonging the life of ram spermatozoa in vitro using oviductal epithelial cells. Reproduction, Fertility and Development 19: 278. Satake, N., Alhaider, A.K., Holt, W.V. and Watson, P.F. (2007) Exposure of spermatozoa to solubilized extracts of the oviductal epithelium apical plasma membrane enhances fertilization in porcine in vitro fertilization. Reproduction Fertility and Development 19: 272. Sostaric, E., Georgiou, A.S., Wong, C.H., Watson, P.F., Holt, W.V. and Fazeli, A. (2006) Global profiling of surface plasma membrane proteome of oviductal epithelial cells. Journal of Proteome Research 5: 3029-3037. Seahorse reproduction and survival of offspring Uniquely among vertebrates, in seahorses and pipefish (Family Syngnathidae), it is the male that becomes pregnant and gives birth to the offspring. Seahorses have a specialised body compartment, the brood pouch, in which the embryos develop, while in pipefish, not all species have a distinct A 0-9 secs B 10-16 secs C 17 secs figure 1 Mating sequence of a yellow seahorse couple; hand drawn from video sequences. The time is shown above the images and demonstrates the duration (A) when the brood pouch remains open (PO), (B) when spermatozoa and eggs are transferred and (C) when the pouch is closed (PC) Drawing © B.Dzyuba PC PC figure 2 Dzyuba, B., Van Look, K.J.W., Cliffe, A., Koldewey, H.J. and Holt, W.V. (2006) Effect of parental age and associated size on fecundity, growth and survival in the yellow seahorse Hippocampus kuda. Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 3055-3061. Van Look, K.J.W., Dzyuba, B., Cliffe, A., Koldewey, H.J. and Holt, W.V. (2007) Dimorphic sperm and the unlikely route to fertilisation in the yellow seahorse. Journal of Experimental Biology 210: 432-437. 130 ** 110 90 Brood size therefore uniquely efficient among vertebrates, yet paradoxically involves several steps that would seem to complicate, and even appear to prevent, the interaction of spermatozoa and eggs. Although we are still unable to describe the exact fertilisation mechanism, we speculate that spermatozoa are ejaculated into a mixture of ovarian fluid and eggs, while the male and female are in close contact. Thereafter, this mixture must enter the pouch, whereupon the spermatozoa encounter seawater. These observations also support the view, indirectly inferred in previous publications, that sperm competition in seahorses is not only non-existent but impossible. Even though the fertilisation process in the yellow seahorse is intricate, these fish are nevertheless highly fertile and can produce broods that exceed 100 A however, embryos. The old parents, produced significantly larger broods with 90% of the offspring surviving for the duration of the 7-week study, compared to the smaller broods of the young parents with less than 50% survival of the offspring (Figure 2). The growth rates were also significantly higher in the first 3 weeks after birth of the offspring from the old parents compared to the offspring from the young parents. Our findings suggest that male body size, and pouch size and function, may influence the future fitness and survival of their offspring. 70 50 30 10 Old Young Parental group (A) Brood size comparison between old and young parents; box-whisker plot showing the mean ± s.e.m. (boxes) and s.d. (whiskers) (F1,10 = 6.45, *P = 0.029) 1.0 100 (%) Survival (%) Survival brood pouch. As in mammals, the embryos develop in close association with the brood pouch epithelium, which is involved with gaseous exchange, provision of nutrients, removal of waste products and osmoregulation. We hypothesised that body size and age of the parents should affect the growth and survival of the offspring if the quality of the brood pouch impacts on the nutrition or respiration of the developing embryos. In addition, the fact that the embryos develop in a brood pouch has led to a widespread but poorly founded belief that the eggs are fertilised using spermatozoa that are deposited directly into the pouch via an internal sperm duct. In collaboration with the ZSL London Zoo Aquarium Team we investigated (1) the effect of parental age and body size on growth and survival of the offspring, and (2) the process of mating and fertilisation in the yellow seahorse Hippocampus kuda. The seahorses were obtained from a captivebred aquarium population that was established at Chester Zoo. When examining the effect of parental age and body size on growth and survival of the offspring the old parents were seahorses that were over 8 months old and had bred previously, while the young parents consisted of 3- and 4-month old individuals that had not previously bred. Our studies revealed that direct deposition of spermatozoa into the brood pouch is physically impossible, as was previously presumed. In reality, the spermatozoa must travel a significant distance (>4 mm) outside the body of the male, to reach and fertilise the eggs in the pouch. In addition, observations of courtship and mating behaviour revealed that the pouch closes immediately after mating and that sperm transfer must occur within a time window of no more than 6 seconds (Figure 1). Furthermore, the yellow seahorse produces extraordinarily low quantities of dimorphic spermatozoa with a minimum sperm:egg ratio of <2.5:1. The entire fertilisation process in seahorses is 0.8 80 60 0.6 40 0.4 11 22 33 44 55 Age (weeks) (weeks) Age 66 (B) Comparison of offspring survival curves from old (open squares) and young (solid circles) parents. Leastsquares survival functions (fitted lines) for offspring from the old parents (n = 508, offspring from six couples) and young parents (n = 263, offspring from six couples). Survival of offspring from young parents is significantly poorer than from old parents (P<0.0001) reproductive biology 21 © Andrew Cunningham zsl conservation programmes © Simon Goodman Research carried out at IoZ focuses on scientific issues relevant to the conservation of species and their habitats. This work directly supports ZSL’s field conservation programmes, which are currently run in over 30 countries worldwide. The combination of applied and pure research means that we are engaged in conservation activities at all points along the spectrum, from genes to ecosystems. Here we describe how research carried out at IoZ underpins conservation policy and practice, and makes it possible to source support and funding for conservation work in range countries in partnership with governments, NGOs and local communities. Island Ecosystems The Galapagos Genetics, Epidemiology and Pathology Laboratory © Janna Rist © Maurus Msuha © Janna Rist 22 Introduced disease is a global concern for the conservation of biodiversity and represents some of the most serious current and future threats to the unique wildlife of Galapagos. Endemic species can suffer when diseases spread from domestic animals, while globalisation and climate change increase the risk of contact with new kinds of pathogen, disease hosts or vectors. Island species are particularly vulnerable to introduced diseases due to their long histories of isolation. The GGEPL project began in October 2003, and the new laboratory opened in August 2004. The project grew from an Ecuadorian initiative to establish molecular biology techniques for conservation in the archipelago. The development of this facility for the Galapagos National Park, combined with building the expertise of Ecuadorian scientists, provides the in situ rapid diagnostic capability required so that mitigating action can be taken to control potential disease threats to the islands. GGEPL is a partnership between Galapagos National Park, the University of Leeds, IoZ and the University of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Funding for this project was provided through the UK government's Darwin Initiative scheme for the conservation of global biodiversity. www.galapagoslab.org Marine and Freshwater Deep-sea ecosystems The deep ocean has an average depth of about 3,800 m and makes up about 90% of the earth’s biosphere, yet little of this vast area has been explored. In recent years technological advances have allowed us to explore new habitats in the deep sea including seamounts, coldwater coral reefs and coral gardens formed by octocorals (sea fans and relatives) and black corals (Antipatharia). This year we have completed work on analysis and modelling of the occurrence of corals on seamounts with colleagues in the Census of Marine Life’s (CoML), Census of Seamounts programme. The results of this study have fed into discussion at the UN General Assembly on impacts of trawling on deep-sea communities. We have also employed DNA barcoding methods to explore the species diversity of by-catch from deepsea longline fisheries for Patagonian toothfish in South Georgia. This study allowed us to identify that this region has a high diversity of octocorals (>40 species) with an associated fauna of other animals including echinoderms (basket stars, urchins and starfish), polychaete worms and even octopus. In European waters DNA barcoding methods have also allowed us to identify new deep-sea species such as hydroids, previously thought to represent species common in shallow-water. The richness of species within the deep sea has been a surprise and a source of constant fascination for scientists and all interested in natural history, but even these remote habitats are now threatened by climate change. UK Native Species Lead poisoning in red kite The red kite Milvus milvus, the subject of a reintroduction programme to England since 1989, feeds on carrion including non-retrieved shot game and is predicted to be at risk of lead poisoning. A recent study examined the threat posed by lead shot to red kites through radiography of regurgitated pellets found under a red kite roost, blood biochemical analyses of red kites destined for reintroduction, and analyses of the lead content of the liver and bone of kites found dead and stored in ZSL’s archive. The results showed that lead is a significant cause of death in red kites. Between 1.5 and 2.3% of pellets contained lead shot, 37% of 125 red kites had elevated blood lead prior to release, and six of 44 red kites had liver lead levels compatible with lead poisoning. The isotopic signature of the lead in the pellets was similar to that in the livers suggesting that the lead poisoning was associated with lead ammunition. In collaboration with Natural England, the RSPB, the Hawk and Owl Trust, the Welsh Kite Trust, Raptor Rescue and the Chilterns Conservation Board, ZSL has published a leaflet ‘Helping Red Kites’ which suggests ways in which the public can prevent red kites being exposed to the risk of lead poisoning, for example by ensuring that shot carcases are not fed to these birds. documents are essential for defining the status of Mongolian biodiversity, raising awareness and assisting in planning and priority setting. ZSL is grateful to the World Bank for their support in the production of the Red Lists and Summary Conservation Action Plans. Carnivores and People Human impacts on carnivore biodiversity Bushmeat and Forests Indices of hunter effort and sustainability in Equatorial Guinea Hunting to supply the bushmeat trade is currently one of the greatest threats facing biodiversity in West and Central Africa. Unsustainable levels of hunting are believed to threaten the survival of many tropical forest species, and may also have important implications for the food security and livelihoods of those people who use this resource. There is therefore an urgent need to develop successful initiatives to promote the long-term sustainability of bushmeat harvest; understanding the impact of bushmeat hunting on wildlife populations will be crucial to achieving this. The development of techniques that allow these impacts to be assessed indirectly without the need for difficult and expensive population monitoring will greatly enhance our ability to manage hunting sustainably. The concept of Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE) is frequently used as an index to abundance in fisheries but to date has been little applied to terrestrial harvesting systems. This project is evaluating the potential of CPUE as an index to the abundance of tropical forest species and therefore as a novel tool for the assessment and management of bushmeat hunting. The presence of unfenced and uncultivated land outside protected areas is important for long-term wildlife conservation, since these areas provide refuge and act as buffer zones. In Africa, many such areas are dominated by pastoral communities, who have co-existed with wildlife for many years. However, in recent decades this coexistence has been declining due to the replacement of pastoral systems with subsistence and commercial cultivation. Tarangire Ecosystem in Tanzania provides a good example where landuse change is fast outside the Tarangire National Park. These changes in land use affect many carnivores, since they require extensive habitats to survive. Understanding the effects of these changes on carnivores is fundamental for developing conservation strategies. Our study aims to investigate the impact of human activities on the abundance and distribution of carnivores and herbivores in the park and in grazing areas and farmlands outside the park, evaluate methods for monitoring carnivores and prey, and document the use of carnivores in traditional medicine and other cultural practices in the ecosystem. a b c d Deserts and Rangelands Desert mammals in Mongolia ZSL has been involved in conservation in Mongolia through the Steppe Forward Programme. Through this work, which primarily focused on the Gobi desert, it became apparent that many of the desert mammals were experiencing rapid declines. However, the overall conservation status of Mongolian mammals was unknown, as a comprehensive assessment of their conservation status had never been conducted. ZSL in collaboration with local partners has addressed this gap by producing the first comprehensive Mongolian Red List of Mammals as well as Summary Conservation Action Plans for Mongolian Mammals. These e f (a) El Chato Tortuga – GGEPL vet Marilyn Cruz (b) Galapagos tortoise health survey (c) Deep-sea coral community from the Hatton Bank, North East Atlantic. C/O DTI SEAS Programme, Bhavani Narayanaswamy, SAMS, Oban, Scotland (d) Red kite (e) The field team in Equatorial Guinea (f) Aardwolf Proteles cristatus ZSL conservation programmes 23 LIBRARY (left) Elephants at London Zoo, 1865, by Ernest Griset (1843-1907). The elephant on the far left is Jumbo, received in 1865 from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Jumbo, a male African elephant, was very tractable for most of his time at the Zoo. However in 1881 he became difficult to manage and he was sold for £2,000 to P.T. Barnum, the American showman and circus proprietor. In 1885 Jumbo was killed in a railway accident in Ontario, Canada, while touring with the circus. His skeleton, preserved in the American Museum of Natural History, indicates that his height was 3.4 metres – one of the largest elephants ever held in a zoo (below) Edward Lear, better known for his nonsense verse and limericks, began his career as a zoological illustrator. This watercolour was used as the basis of a colour illustration to accompany Captain Smee’s first scientific description of an Asian lion. The illustration and the article were published in 1835 in Volume 1 of the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London During 2006, 1,500 books were added to the online catalogue, 4,033 journal issues accessioned and 2,375 loans were made to Fellows and ZSL staff. A trial online art catalogue, developed with funding from the Michael Marks Trust, is now online and can be searched using the `switch database’ option to `Art’ in the Library catalogue at http://library.zsl.org. A `ZSL drawings and prints’ page has been added to the main ZSL website at www.zsl.org. A generous bequest of £245,000 from Connie Nutkins, a former member of staff, has been received by ZSL for use by the Library. Frank Wheeler, a former keeper at London Zoo 1966-2006, left a bequest of his books to the Library. MLA (Museums, Libraries, Archives) London funded a further preservation audit visit by professional conservators, providing detailed reports to help inform our future preservation/conservation planning. The journal holdings information of the Library has been uploaded to SUNCAT, the pilot Serials UNion CATalogue for the UK, and can now be seen on their online catalogue http://edina.ac.uk/suncat/. Launched in autumn 2006, SUNCAT is a freely available tool designed to help researchers locate serials held in over 60 libraries in the UK. A display case in the newly refurbished Reception has been used to exhibit rare items in our collection, such as archival photographs to celebrate the 75th anniversary of ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, the work of Ernest Griset and a celebration of the Linneaus tercentenary. Artefact of the month has continued to be popular on the ZSL website, also featuring rare paintings, archives and books. In October Hadas Steiner was appointed as a Visiting Scholar to research the archives on the Northern Aviary. Visiting Scholar is an honorary title allowing privileged access to rare items held in the ZSL Library and Archives. Scholars from around the world are welcome to apply. Library tours were given to library staff from the Natural History Museum, Fellows and Friends of ZSL, and student librarians from Eltham College. Interest in ZSL’s archives has continued to increase with a variety of researchers visiting the Library, mainly to consult the Daily Occurrence books, the 19th century Council minutes, Minutes of Scientific Meetings, the correspondence collection and zoo guides, as well as historical and genealogical archives. We are extremely grateful for the continued help of our dedicated team of volunteers and the many Fellows and Friends of ZSL who continue to support the Library with their time, by donating books, archives, zoo ephemera and funds for the conservation of items in our collection. 24 Number of publications 12 (left) Number of publications published by MSc graduates 1995 to 2006 10 8 (below – left to right) Sandra Wenger, Chloe Booth, ZSL’s Director General Ralph Armond and Anna Wallwork 6 4 2 Education & training 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 1999 2000 1998 1997 1996 1995 0 Education and training are central to IoZ’s activities and we have a strong commitment to hosting research projects, particularly those leading to a PhD degree. Our PhD students are co-registered at a university department but most spend the majority of their time at IoZ. During the year PhDs were awarded to Tom Charman (University of Cambridge) for his research on the conservation ecology and genetics of the great yellow bumblebee Bombus distinguendus; Kate Ciborowski (University of Reading) for her investigation into patterns of genetic variability during the decline of Iberian Atlantic salmon populations; Khyne Mar (University College London) for her study on the demography and life-history strategies of working timber elephants in Myanmar; Simon Rees (University of Wales, Cardiff) for his research on the conservation genetics and ecology of the endangered black bog ant Formica picea and Chris Sandbrook (University College London) for his analysis of the impacts of tourism on gorillas at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. © Sandra Wenger Our MSc courses in Wild Animal Health and Wild Animal Biology, both jointly run with the Royal Veterinary College, continue to be very popular. Each student carries out a project during the course, increasing numbers of which are being successfully published in the scientific literature, reflecting the high calibre of students and the rising standards of teaching and supervision. Project prizes in 2005/06 were presented for Chloe Booth’s study on the effects of marine contaminants on the DNA of cetaceans, Anna Wallwork’s project on the effect of distance and speed of chase prior to chemical immobilisation on serum myoglobin in black rhinoceros, and Sandra Wenger’s work on the cardiopulmonary effects on fieldanaesthetised white rhinoceros of using a combination of etorphine, azaperone, detomidine and butorphanol. Of 180 (below left) Sandra Wenger (MSc Wild Animal Health) monitoring an anaesthetised white rhinoceros in South Africa to assess novel anaesthetic methods graduates, 68% have entered the wild animal health and biology field, forming a valuable worldwide network of wild animal professionals. In partnership with Imperial College London, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, IoZ has developed a new MSc in Conservation Science. The course is aimed at graduates or conservation practitioners wishing to improve their existing skills. It is strongly interdisciplinary, covering both socioeconomic and biological analysis, as well as providing training in the practical skills needed to succeed as a conservation professional. In this way, the course aims to develop abilities not only in the analysis of conservation problems, but also in the implementation of solutions. The IoZ annual Student Conference was held in January. The conference offers an opportunity for students to present their work in a relatively informal atmosphere and for staff and university supervisors to learn about the diverse research undertaken by students at IoZ. This year’s Daisy Balogh Prize for the best talk was awarded to Nicola Jenner for her talk ‘Insights into the mating system of the black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas revealed using microsatellite analysis’. library / education and training 25 The Zoological Society of London Officers Professor Sir Patrick Bateson FRS (President) Professor Paul Harvey BA MA DPhil DSc FRS (Secretary) Paul Rutteman CBE BSC (Econ) FCA (Treasurer) Directors Ralph Armond (Director General) Glyn Davies PhD (Director of Conservation Programmes) • David Field BSc MBA (Zoological Director) Georgina Mace OBE FRS DPhil (Director of Science) • Ian Meyrick BA FCIPD (Human Resources Director) Brian Oldman BA (Commercial Director) Michael Russell FCMA (Financial Director) governance, staff & students ZSL/University of Cambridge Joint Committee Professor Sir Brian Heap CBE FRS, University of Cambridge (Chairman) Dr Bill Amos PhD, University of Cambridge Ralph Armond, Director General ZSL Professor Malcolm Burrows FRS, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge Dr Tony Fincham BSc PhD Professor Paul Harvey BA MA DPhil DSc FRS Professor Michael Hassell FRS, Imperial College London Dr Andrea Manica PhD, University of Cambridge Institute of Zoology Head of the Institute of Zoology Tim Blackburn DPhil Senior Research Staff Peter Bennett DPhil, Theme Leader, Biodiversity and Macroecology Chris Carbone DPhil, Postgraduate Tutor Guy Cowlishaw PhD, Theme Leader, Behavioural and Population Ecology Andrew Cunningham BVMS PhD MRCVS, Theme Leader, Wildlife Epidemiology Sarah Durant PhD William Holt PhD, Theme Leader, Reproductive Biology Paul Jepson PhD BVMS MRCVS William Jordan PhD, Theme Leader, Genetic Variation, Fitness and Adaptability Richard Pettifor DPhil, Theme Leader, Population and Community Ecology • Alex D Rogers PhD Jinliang Wang PhD Postdoctoral Research Staff and Lecturers Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse PhD Jonathan Baillie PhD Elizabeth Boakes PhD • Jakob Bro-Jørgensen PhD James Bull PhD • Kate Ciborowski PhD Ben Collen PhD Roslyn Elliott PhD John Ewen PhD Robert Ewers PhD Trenton Garner PhD Clyde Hutchinson PhD • Nick Isaac PhD Kate Jones PhD Noëlle Kümpel PhD • Rhiannon Lloyd PhD Nathalie Pettorelli PhD Marcus Rowcliffe PhD Anna Santure PhD Seirian Sumner PhD Samuel Turvey DPhil Katrien Van Look PhD Postgraduate Research Assistants and Vets Yedra Feltrer Rambaud MSc MRCVS • Becki Lawson MA VetMB MSc MRCVS Iain McGill BSc BVetMed MRCVS • Fieke Molenaar Anthony Sainsbury BVetMed CertLAS CertZooMed MRCVS Nana Satake MRes 26 Postgraduate Research Students Gerardo Acosta Jamett DVM MSc Sophie Allebone-Webb MRes Arnaud Bataille BSc Jon Bielby MSc Patricia Brekke BSc Ruth Brown MSc Savrina Carrizo Thomas Charman BA • Natalie Cooper MSc Ian Craigie MSc Daria Dadam MSc Amelia Dickman MSc Amanda Duffus Jon Epstein Emily Fitzherbert MSc Nicholas Hill MSc Elise Huchard MSc Nicola Jenner BSc Andrew King BSc Becki Lawson MA VetMB MSc MRCVS Khyne Mar MSc • Maurus Msuha MSc Carlos Esteban Payan Garrido BSc Robert Pickles Simon Rees BSc • Janna Rist BSc Chris Sandbrook MSc • Nana Satake MRes Björn Schulte-Herbrüggen Joseph Smith MSc Gordon Smith BSc Amber Teacher BSc MRes Susan Walker BSc Shama Zaki Aldeen Abdul Haleem MSc Administrative, Support and Technical Staff Christina Herterich LLM ACIS (Institute Administrator) Phil Cottingham BTec (CED) MIScT (Assistant Institute Administrator) Joanne Keogh (PA to Director of Science/Head of Institute and Senior Staff) Amrit Dehal BSc (Assistant Institute Administrator – Information Systems) Breda Farrell (General Technician) Jenny Fulford (Editorial Assistant) • David Hitchcock (Senior Workshop Technician) Sarah Holbrook (Living Planet Index Administrator) Louise McRae (Living Planet Index Administrator) Julie Phillips BA PGCE (Administrative Assistant) • Mala Ram (Indicators & Assessments Unit Administrator) Research Technicians Robert Deaville BSc (Cetacean Strandings Programme Manager) Dada Gottelli BSc (Chief Technician) Daphne Green HNC AIScT (Senior Technician) Shinto John MLT (Microbiology Technician) Johanna Nielsen (Research Technician) Matthew Perkins BSc (Pathology Technician) Honorary Research Fellows Dr Andrew Balmford, University of Cambridge Professor Malcolm Bennett, University of Liverpool Professor Michael Bruford, University of Cardiff Professor Roger Butlin, University of Sheffield Dr Peter Daszak, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, USA Dr Matthew Fisher, Imperial College London Professor John Gittleman, University of Georgia, USA Professor Rhys Green, University of Cambridge Professor Katherine Homewood, University College London Dr Rufus Johnstone, University of Cambridge Dr E J Milner-Gulland, Imperial College London Professor Ian Owens, Imperial College London Dr Debbie Pain, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Dr Andy Purvis, Imperial College London Dr Robert Simmons, Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, South Africa Professor Rene Stet, University of Aberdeen Dr Simon Thirgood, Macauley Institute Professor Charles Tyler, University of Exeter Professor Paul Watson, Royal Veterinary College Honorary Research Associates Teresa Abáiger PhD Boris Dzyuba PhD Simon Goodman PhD Marcella Kelly PhD Heather Koldeway PhD Jonathan Loh PhD Valerie Olson PhD Giovanni Pastorino MSc Nilendran Prathalingam PhD Sebastien Regnaut PhD Scientific Publications and Meetings Journals and Meetings Linda DaVolls BA (Head of Scientific Publications and Meetings) Fiona Fisken BSc (Managing Editor, International Zoo Yearbook) Lucinda Haines BSc (Scientific Journals Administrator) Joy Hayward BSc (Scientific Meetings Coordinator) Editors Journal of Zoology Ian Boyd PhD DSc (Editor-in-Chief) Nigel Bennett PhD Juliet Clutton-Brock PhD DSc • Robert Elwood PhD • Tim Halliday MA DPhil Andrew Kitchener PhD Philip Rainbow PhD DSc Jean-Nicolas Volff PhD Gunther Zupanc PhD Editors Animal Conservation Guy Cowlishaw PhD Keith Crandall PhD • Trenton Garner PhD John Gittleman PhD Todd Katzner PhD E J Milner-Gulland PhD • Karen Mock PhD Library Anne Sylph MSc MCLIP (Librarian) Michael Palmer MA (Archivist) Marie Monaghan BA MCLIP (Assistant Librarian) James Godwin (Library Assistant) • departures Others working at the Institute, including volunteers working on projects in the field Hajir Al-khaiurlla Mark Ambrus Claudia Amphlett Julie Anderson Jaime Andres Cabrera Tzo Tze Ang Sayako Arai Alistair Auffret Elena Badia Juliana Berrio Holly Bik Chloe Booth David Bowden Brenna Boyle Andrew Breed Jon Bridle George Busby Damien Caillaud Nicholas Camara Claudia Carraro Jaya Carrier Bernadette Carroll Phillip Cassey Anna Chenery Sally Cheung Emily Coleman Esther Flores Couce Pilar Coy Melissa Cuke Olivia Daniel Tim Davies Jane Dayanna Guerrero Perez Angelica Diaz Thomas Doherty-Bone Emily Dolan Caitlin Douglas Kate Douglas Trevorne Douglas Boris Dzyuba Catrin Egerton Sandra Patricia Escudero Paez G Francesco Ficetola Katie Frith Jennifer Gilbert Smita Gogoi Annemarie Greenwood Kate Harris David Hayman Judit Hidalgo Vila Anne Hilborn Rhiannon Hughes-Lloyd Ulrike Irlich Miho Ishida Marianne James Carlos Filipe Justo Moura Janien Kamps Jos Kielgast Melissa Kyriakos Susana La Falci Julia Latham Yiming Li Nicola Lipczynski Jonathan Loh Alanna Maltby Harry Marshall Laura Martinez Veronica Melchionda Victoria Morgan Linus Munishi Lenke Nealova Deise Nichimura Margaret Nyokabi Kim O’Connor Ciara O’Dea Valerie Olson Cecilia Orme Jenny Paola Gallo Santos Giovanni Pastorino Hannah Peck Kirsi Peck Laura Pettiti Emilio Rendon-Franco Mer Richardson Agnes Rocha-Gosselin Judith Schleicher Paul Scofield Jennifer Sears Laura Simpson Sarah Stebbing David Stonehill Abigel Szodoray-Paradi Kelly Thurston Sandra Tranquilli Carly Waterman Hazel Watson Margaret Waweru Oliver Wearn Aidan Weatherill Ann Weddle Penny Wilson Susan Wilson Helen Womack Sally Wren Tara Zamin governance, staff and students 27 Collaborations Applied Biomathematics (USA) IUCN Sampled Red List Index ArtDataBanken (Sweden) IUCN Sampled Red List Index Bat Conservation Trust Monitoring bat biodiversity: indicators of sustainable development in Eastern Europe; Bat ultrasonic acoustic monitoring protocols Bird Conservation Nepal Conservation of Gyps spp. vultures in India BirdLife International Global biodiversity hotspots; IUCN Sampled Red List Index Bombay Natural History Society (India) Conservation of Gyps spp. vultures in India; Impact of vulture declines on public and animal health in India Borugo Ltda (Colombia) Jaguar density, prey availability and hunting pressure in the Colombian Amazon British Antarctic Survey Chemosynthetically-driven ecosystems south of the Polar Front British Embassy in Quito (Ecuador) Building capacity and determining disease threats to Galapagos taxa British Trust for Ornithology Garden Bird Health Initiative; Long-term research on the Gulf of Guinea islands Bulgarian National Museum of Natural History Monitoring bat biodiversity: indicators of sustainable development in Eastern Europe Canterbury Museum (New Zealand) Extinct birds and bird extinctions in the South Pacific Care for the Wild International Comparative demography of elephants in European zoos and range states Center of Expertise for Rabies CFIA/ACIA (Canada) Impact of vulture declines on public and animal health in India Central Science Laboratory Garden Bird Health Initiative; Health surveillance for species recovery programmes Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) NERC Management of bumblebee habitat in agricultural landscapes; Effects of spatial scale on population abundance and dynamics; Health surveillance for species recovery programmes Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) Cetacean strandings investigation; IUCN Sampled Red List Index Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) Long-term research on the Gulf of Guinea islands Charles Darwin Research Station (Galapagos) Ecology, adaptation and evolution in invasive ants Chester Zoological Gardens Chytridiomycosis emergence in Dominica Chiang Mai University (Thailand) Health and reproduction in elephant populations in Asia Chinese Academy of Sciences North American bullfrogs as potential Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis reservoirs in China Conservation International IUCN Sampled Red List Index; Global Mammal Assessment; Global biodiversity hotspots; Spatial patterns of hunting and sustainability in Rio Muni; Evaluating dependence on wild foods among the rural poor in Central Africa; EDGE of Existence: echidna programme Consortium for Conservation Medicine (USA) Effects of climate change and globalisation on disease emergence; Ecology of henipavirus in Bangladesh CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory (Australia) Anthropogenic change and emerging zoonotic paramyxovirus; Conservation of Gyps spp. vultures in India; Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases in mammalian mating and social systems Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Habitat use of tigers in altered landscapes and monitoring of cryptic mammals Desert Research Foundation of Namibia Functional response mechanisms in social foragers; Optimisation and social constraints in group-living vertebrates; Coordination of social foragers in patchy environments; MHC, parasite loads, and mate choice in desert baboons Downstream Research Group (USA) Conservation of the Yangtze River dolphin Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust Chytridiomycosis emergence in Dominica; Spatial organisation and disease transmission in black-backed jackal; EDGE of Existence: solenodon programme Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas (Spain) Reproductive studies in gazelles European Bird Census Council Living Planet Index European Environment Agency IUCN Sampled Red List Index Farmed Environment Company Ltd Management of bumblebee habitat in agricultural landscapes Fauna and Flora International Chytridiomycosis emergence in Dominica; Habitat use of tigers in altered landscapes and monitoring of cryptic mammals; EDGE of Existence: pygmy hippopotamus programme FishBase IUCN Sampled Red List Index Fisheries Research Services Odorant receptor gene expression in homing in Atlantic salmon Forestry and Wildlife Division, Commonwealth of Dominica Chytridiomycosis emergence in Dominica Frankfurt Zoological Society (Germany) Long-term demography of the Serengeti cheetah population Galapagos Conservation Trust Building capacity and determining disease threats to Galapagos taxa Galapagos National Park Building capacity and determining disease threats to Galapagos taxa; West Nile virus emergence in Galapagos; Genetics, parasitology and ecology of mosquito spp.: impacts of disease vectors on biodiversity in Galapagos Genus-ABS Ltd Enhancement of sperm cell survival by epididymal and oviduct epithelial cells Gobabeb Training and Research Centre (Namibia) Spatial organisation and disease transmission in black-backed jackal; Coordination of social foragers in patchy environments; MHC, parasite loads, and mate choice in desert baboons Great Gobi Biosphere Protection (Mongolia) Regional Red Listing Green Balkans (Bulgaria) Monitoring bat biodiversity: indicators of sustainable development in Eastern Europe Group on Earth Observations Secretariat IUCN Sampled Red List Index Harvard Medical School (USA) Anthropogenic change and emerging zoonotic paramyxovirus 28 Idea Wild (USA) Jaguar density, prey availability and hunting pressure in the Colombian Amazon Imazon (Brazil) Hierarchical socioeconomic models of Amazonian deforestation IMV Enhancement of sperm cell survival by epididymal and oviduct epithelial cells Innovis Ltd Enhancement of sperm cell survival by epididymal and oviduct epithelial cells INPA (Brazil) Hierarchical socio-economic models of Amazonian deforestation Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (Democratic Republic of Congo) Development of a monitoring and training unit for the World Heritage Sites of Democratic Republic of Congo Institut National Agronomique ParisGrignon (France) Dynamics of species extinctions Institute for Animal Health Effects of climate change and globalisation on disease emergence Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine – National Academy of Sciences (Ukraine) Intrusion dynamics of euryhaline fish species in fresh waters of the Ukraine Institute of Ecology Anthropogenic change and emerging zoonotic paramyxovirus Institute of Hydrobiology Conservation of the Yangtze River dolphin Interdisciplinary Centre for Marine Sciences (CICIMAR) Zoonotic potential of whale watching; Determining age structure of cetacean populations using telomeres as a biological clock IUCN SSC Global Mammal Assessment; Conservation of the Yangtze River dolphin; IUCN Sampled Red List Index; EDGE of Extinction: golden-rumped elephant shrew programme (Afrotheria Specialist Group) Kenya Wildlife Service EDGE of Existence: hirola programme Kesatsart University (Thailand) Health and reproduction in elephant populations in Asia Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics DNA damage and cancer: a biomolecular approach to understanding urogenital carcinoma in California sea lions Leuser Development Programme Habitat use of tigers in altered landscapes and monitoring of cryptic mammals Marine Environmental Monitoring Cetacean strandings investigation Marine Mammal Center (USA) DNA damage and cancer: a biomolecular approach to understanding urogenital carcinoma in California sea lions; Phylogeographic patterns of disease occurrence in California sea lions Martin Luther University of Halle Wittenberg (Germany) Regional Red Listing Massey University (New Zealand) Sexual selection and the hihi Mauritian Wildlife Foundation Conservation and molecular ecology of Round Island petrels Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Government of the Republic of Namibia Coordination of social foragers in patchy environments; MHC, parasite loads, and mate choice in desert baboons Ministry of Nature and Environment Mongolia Regional Red Listing Mongolian Academy of Sciences Regional Red Listing Moredun Research Institute Epidemiology of poxviruses in squirrels Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Spain) Emergence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in the Mallorcan midwife toad National Birds of Prey Trust Conservation of Gyps spp. vultures in India National Museum of Wales IUCN Sampled Red List Index National University of Mongolia Regional Red Listing Natural England Assessing the impact of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis emergence in Britain; Health surveillance for species recovery programmes Natural History Museum Cetacean strandings investigation; The Frozen Ark project Naturalis (The Netherlands) IUCN Sampled Red List Index NatureServe (USA) IUCN Sampled Red List Index New South Wales Zoological Parks Board (Australia) Semen freezing in macropods New York State Department of Health (USA) West Nile virus emergence in Galapagos North of England Zoological Society Comparative jaguar abundance in Colombian Amazonia Northern Michigan University (USA) IUCN Sampled Red List Index Northern Rangelands Trust (Kenya) EDGE of Existence: hirola programme Northern Territories Parks and Wildlife Service (Australia) Bioregional patterns of extinction in Australian mammals Organizacion Aviatur (Colombia) Jaguar density, prey availability and hunting pressure in the Colombian Amazon Oxford Brooks University EDGE of Existence: loris programme Paignton Zoo and Environmental Park Health surveillance for species recovery programmes Palaecol Research Ltd (New Zealand) Extinct birds and bird extinctions in the South Pacific Parques Nacionales de Colombia Jaguar density, prey availability and hunting pressure in the Colombian Amazon People’s Trust for Endangered Species Health surveillance for species recovery programmes Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre Conservation of Gyps spp. vultures in India Prince of Songkla University (Thailand) EDGE of Existence: bumblebee bat programme Princeton University (USA) Anthropogenic change and emerging zoonotic paramyxovirus; Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases in mammalian mating and social systems; Effects of climate change and globalisation on disease emergence Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage (Australia) Susceptibilities of species to human disturbances Queensland Department of Primary Industries (Australia) Anthropogenic change and emerging zoonotic paramyxovirus Romanian Bat Protection Organisation Monitoring bat biodiversity: indicators of sustainable development in Eastern Europe Rothamsted Research Management of bumblebee habitat in agricultural landscapes Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh IUCN Sampled Red List Index Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew IUCN Sampled Red List Index Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Conservation of Gyps spp. vultures in India; Garden Bird Health Initiative; Impact of vulture declines on public health in India; Health surveillance for species recovery programmes; The UK house sparrow population decline; Living Planet Index Royal Veterinary College Maximising semen performance during and after cryopreservation; Cetacean strandings investigation; Enhancement of sperm cell survival by epididymal and oviduct epithelial cells; Optimisation and social constraints in group-living vertebrates; Epidemiology of poxvirus in squirrels Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation Impact and sustainability of hunting in Colombia Salmonella Reference Unit, Health Protection Agency Garden Bird Health Initiative Scottish Agricultural College Cetacean strandings investigation; Garden Bird Health Initiative Scottish Salmonella Reference Laboratory Garden Bird Health Initiative Sea Mammal Research Unit Cetacean strandings investigation Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (USA) Genetics of caste determination in polistine wasps; Hierarchical socioeconomic models of Amazonian deforestation State University of New York (USA) IUCN Sampled Red List Index Statistics Netherlands IUCN Sampled Red List Index; Living Planet Index Sumatran Tiger Project Habitat use of tigers in altered landscapes and monitoring of cryptic mammals Swedish Museum of Natural History Sexual selection and the hihi Tanzania National Parks Long-term demography of the Serengeti cheetah population; National Conservation Action Plan for Tanzanian mammals; A national plan for carnivore conservation in Tanzania Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute Longterm demography of the Serengeti cheetah population; National Conservation Action Plan for Tanzanian mammals; A national plan for carnivore conservation in Tanzania Tarangire Elephant Project (Tanzania) A national plan for carnivore conservation in Tanzania Thompson Rivers University (Canada) Dispersal, population genetics and disease survey of endangered rattlesnakes Tiger Tops Habitat use of tigers in altered landscapes and monitoring of cryptic mammals Tsaobis Leopard Nature Park (Namibia) Coordination of social foragers in patchy environments; Optimisation and social constraints in group-living vertebrates; MHC, parasite loads, and mate choice in desert baboons; Functional response mechanisms in social foragers UNESCO ‘Conservation in Crisis’ Programme Monitoring and training unit for the World Heritage Sites of Democratic Republic of Congo Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain) Enhancement of sperm cell survival by epididymal and oviduct epithelial cells Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) Ecology and evolution of introduced avian malaria Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) Wildlife immunogenetics Universidad Nacional de Colombia Jaguar density, prey availability and hunting pressure in the Colombian Amazon Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) Garden Bird Health Initiative; Cetacean strandings investigation University of Aberdeen CET-LIFE, Cetacean life history, ecology and movements in European Atlantic waters; Evolutionary dynamics of major histocompatibility genes in Arctic charr University of Birmingham Global biodiversity hotspots; Sexual selection and the hihi; Extinction, island biogeography and community structure in island birds; Ecology and evolution of introduced avian malaria University of Bristol Evolution of echolocation in bats; Chemosynthetically-driven ecosystems south of the Polar Front University of California (USA) DNA damage and cancer: a biomolecular approach to understanding urogenital carcinoma in California sea lions; Ecology and evolution of introduced avian malaria University of Cambridge MHC, parasite loads, and mate choice in desert baboons; Functional response mechanisms in social foragers (baboons); Optimisation and social constraints in group-living vertebrates; Wildlife immunogenetics: understanding neutral and functional genetic influences on pathogen resistance; Susceptibilities of species to human disturbances; Longterm research on the Gulf of Guinea islands; The Frozen Ark project; Assessing the effectiveness of parks in maintaining biodiversity; Towards a deeper understanding of extinction; Sexual selection in hihi University of Canterbury (New Zealand) The Hope River Forest Fragmentation Project University of Cendrawasih (Indonesia) EDGE of Existence: echidna programme University of Columbia (USA) Effects of climate change and globalisation on disease emergence University of Copenhagen (Denmark) Chytridiomycosis in Kenya University of Cork (Ireland) Cetacean strandings investigation Umengo (Mongolia) Regional Red Listing UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre Assessing the effectiveness of parks in maintaining biodiversity; IUCN Sampled Red List Index; Living Planet Index collaborations 29 University of East Anglia Management of bumblebee habitat in agricultural landscapes; Relatedness and information in reproductive conflicts in social groups; Multiple mating in topi antelopes; Garden Bird Health Initiative; Pigs, palms, people and tigers: integrating conservation and commerce in Sumatra University of Edinburgh Implications of dog-wildlife coexistence for conservation and public health; Impact of vulture declines on public and animal health in India University of Florida (USA) Habitat use of tigers in altered landscapes and monitoring of cryptic mammals University of Girona (Spain) Enhancement of sperm cell survival by epididymal and oviduct epithelial cells University of Guayaquil (Ecuador) Building capacity and determining disease threats to Galapagos taxa; West Nile virus emergence in Galapagos; Genetics, parasitology and ecology of mosquito spp.: impacts of disease vectors on biodiversity on Galapagos University of Guelph (Canada) Comparative demography of elephants in European zoos and range states University of Kent Spatial organisation and disease transmission in blackbacked jackal; Emergence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in the Mallorcan midwife toad University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (South Africa) MHC, parasite loads, and mate choice in desert baboons University of Las Palmas (Spain) Cetacean strandings investigation University of Leeds Ecology, adaptation and evolution in invasive ants; West Nile virus emergence in Galapagos; Genetics, parasitology and ecology of mosquito spp.: impacts of disease vectors on biodiversity in Galapagos University of Leicester Population genetics and phylogeography of the European bitterling University of Liverpool Garden Bird Health Initiative; Cetacean strandings investigation; Effects of climate change and globalisation on disease emergence; Phenotypic and transcriptomic responses to microparasite and macroparasite co-infection in zebrafish; Stochasticity in macroparasite community population dynamics; The UK house sparrow population decline University of London, University College Coordination of social foragers in patchy environments; Jaguar, ocelot and mammal prey conservation in Amazonia; Investigating key determinants of human-large carnivore conflict in Tanzania; Social and ecological dynamics of the bushmeat trade: commodity chains and sustainability; Development of a monitoring and training unit for the World Heritage Sites of Democratic Republic of Congo; Matrix effects on the metapopulation dynamics of the black-and-white colobus monkey in the coastal forests of Kenya; Human impacts on carnivore biodiversity in Tanzania; Effects of climate change and globalisation on disease emergence. University of London, Imperial College Effects of private ecotourism operations on a subsistence fishing community; Economics of wild meat consumption; Energetic constraints on animal ecology; Habitat requirements of Sumatran mammals in human-altered landscapes; Global biodiversity hotspots; Macroecology and macroevolution of mammals; 30 Susceptibilities of species to human disturbances; Determinants of pathogen distribution and prevalence in a multi-host and island system; Sexual selection and extinction in birds; Evaluating dependence on wild foods among the rural poor in Central Africa; Spatial patterns of hunting and sustainability in Rio Muni; Disease susceptibility of three amphibian species; Wildlife management indicators for timber certification in West African forests; Emergence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in the Mallorcan midwife toad; Ecological and genetic determinants of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis emergence in European amphibian populations; Ecology of henipavirus in Bangladesh University of London, Queen Mary and Westfield College Population and immunocompetent genetic variation: a field-based study; Conservation and molecular ecology of Round Island petrels; Molecular and adaptive genetic variation of ranavirus in the UK; Epidemiology of poxvirus in squirrels University of Makerere (Uganda) Living Planet Index University of Malaya (Malaysia) Anthropogenic change and emerging zoonotic paramyxovirus University of Marburg (Germany) IUCN Sampled Red List Index University of Montpellier (France) MHC, parasite loads and mate choice in desert baboons University of Murcia (Spain) Enhancement of sperm cell survival by epididymal and oviduct epithelial cells University of Natal (South Africa) Dynamics of species extinctions University of New Mexico (USA) Energetic constraints on animal ecology University of Newcastle Chemosynthetically-driven ecosystems south of the Polar Front; Epidemiology of poxviruses in squirrels University of Nottingham The Frozen Ark project University of Oxford Habitat use of tigers in altered landscapes and monitoring of cryptic mammals; Camera trapping as a census tool; IUCN Sampled Red List Index University of Padova (Italy) IoZ hormone assay service; Reproductive and density assessment of wild red deer in relation to landscape University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka) Health and reproduction in elephant populations in Asia University of Queensland (Australia) Semen freezing in macropods University of Reading Patterns of genetic variability during population decline in Iberian Atlantic salmon University of San Diego (USA) Energetic constraints on animal ecology University of Saskatchewan (Canada) Cetacean strandings investigation; Effects of climate change and globalisation on disease emergence University of Sheffield A postgenomic approach to the role of odour and gustatory receptors in Drosophila speciation; Enhancement of sperm cell survival by epididymal and oviduct epithelial cells; Global biodiversity hotspots University of Southampton Chemosynthetically-driven ecosystems south of the Polar Front University of St Andrews A postgenomic approach to the role of odour and gustatory receptors in Drosophila speciation; Patterns of genetic variability during population decline in Iberian Atlantic salmon; IUCN Sampled Red List Index; Living Planet Index University of Stirling Comparative demography of elephants in European zoos and range states University of Sussex Communication networks in African elephants University of Swansea Patterns of genetic variability during population decline in Iberian Atlantic salmon University of Victoria (Canada) Determinants of pathogen distribution and prevalence in a multihost and island system University of Virginia (USA) Energetic constraints on animal ecology; Ecology and evolution of infectious diseases in mammalian mating and social systems; Effects of spatial scale on population abundance and dynamics University of Washington (USA) Longterm demography of the Serengeti cheetah population University of Wisconsin (USA) Effects of climate change and globalisation on disease emergence University of Zurich (Switzerland) Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis emergence in European amphibian populations US Geological Survey IUCN Sampled Red List Index Utrecht University (The Netherlands) Health and reproduction in elephant populations in Asia Veterinary Laboratories Agency Cetacean strandings investigation; Health surveillance for species recovery programmes Veterinary Services Division, Commonwealth of Dominica (Dominica) Chytridiomycosis emergence in Dominica Waikato Institute of Technology (New Zealand) The Hope River Forest Fragmentation Project Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Phenotypic and transcriptomic responses to microparasite and macroparasite co-infection in zebrafish Wild Camel Protection Foundation EDGE of Existence: Bactrian camel programme Wildlife Conservation Society (USA) Long-term demography of the Serengeti cheetah population; National Conservation Action Plan for Tanzanian mammals; Investigating human–large carnivore conflict in Tanzania; Human impacts on carnivore biodiversity in Tanzania; Jaguar, ocelot and mammal prey conservation in Amazonia; Wildlife Picture Index; Regional Red Listing; Kaplan Awards Program Wildlife Institute of India Monitoring tigers, large mammals and human–wildlife conflict in India Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre Garden Bird Health Initiative Working Dogs for Conservation (USA) Long-term demography of the Serengeti cheetah population World Wildlife Fund Development and implementation of the Living Planet Index; IUCN Sampled Red List Index Wurzburg University (Germany) Evolution of nest-drifting by workers of the tropical paper wasp ‘Zirichiltaggi’, Sardinian Wildlife Conservation (Italy) Is disease an undetected extinction threat to the endangered Sardinian newt? Professional affiliations Animal Health Information Specialists (UK and Ireland) Ann Sylph (Member) Bat Conservation Trust, UK Kate Jones (Trustee) Biodiversity Indicators Partnership Jonathan Baillie (Member) British Andrology Society William Holt (Chairman) British Veterinary Zoological Society Becki Lawson (Council Member) staff Representation Bushmeat Working Group Guy Cowlishaw (Member); Marcus Rowcliffe (Member) Centre for Ecology and Evolution Tim Blackburn (Member, Steering Committee); Kate Jones (Member, Steering Committee) Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology Tim Blackburn (International Science Advisor) Cetacean and Marine Turtle Biodiversity Action Plan Steering Group Paul Jepson (Member) Charity Archivists and Records Managers Group Michael Palmer (Member) Conservation International Jonathan Baillie (Member, Steering Committee on Conservation Outcomes) Consortium for Conservation Medicine, USA Andrew Cunningham (Associate); Kate Jones (Associate) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Andrew Cunningham (Member, Advisory Group on Quality Assurance, Veterinary Surveillance Strategy; Member, TB Advisory Group; Reviewer, Statutory and Exotic Disease Research Programme) Frozen Ark William Holt (Member, Steering Group) International Advisory Group for the Northern Bald Ibis Andrew Cunningham (Committee Member) International Council for Exploration of the Sea Paul Jepson (Member, Ad-hoc Advisory Group on the Impact of Sonar on Cetaceans) International Embryo Transfer Society William Holt (Co-chair, CANDES Regulatory Committee) International Foundation for Science Marcus Rowcliffe (Member, Scientific Advisory Committee) International Union for the Study of Social Insects Seirian Sumner (Member, Secretary for British Section) IUCN SSC Gerardo Acosta-Jamett (Member, Deer and Cat Specialist Groups; Member, Veterinary Specialist Group); Jonathan Baillie (Coordinator, IUCN Sampled Red List Index; Co-chair, IUCN Red List Working Group; Member, Biodiversity Assessments Sub-Committee; Editorial positions Member, Regional Red List Working Group); Peter Bennett (Member, Conservation Breeding Specialist Group); Jakob Bro-Jørgensen (Member, Antelope Specialist Group); Ben Collen (Member, Red List Index Working Group; Member, Users Working Group; Member, Classification Schemes Working Group); Andrew Cunningham (Member, Veterinary Specialist Group; Member, Conservation Breeding Specialist Group); Sarah Durant (Member, Cat Specialist Group); John Ewen (Member, Reintroduction Specialist Group); Dada Gottelli (Member, Canid Specialist Group); Kate Jones (Member, Chiroptera Specialist Group; Member, Biodiversity Assessments Sub-Committee; Advisor, Historical Extinctions Advisory Panel); Alex Rogers (Member, Marine Invertebrate Red List Authority; Advisor, Marine Programme on High Seas Biodiversity); Anthony Sainsbury (Member, Veterinary Specialist Group); Sam Turvey (Member, Biodiversity Assessments Sub-Committee) Leverhulme Trust Guy Cowlishaw (Member, Advisory Board for the Philip Leverhulme Prizes in Zoology) Linnean Society Alex Rogers (Fellow) Marine Mammal Society Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse (Member) Mexican Society of Marine Mastozoology Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse (Member, International Advisor, Veterinary Specialist Group) National Science and Engineering Research Council, Canada William Jordan (Member, College of Reviewers for the Canada Research Chairs) Natural Environment Research Council Peter Bennett (Member, Peer Review College); William Jordan (Member, Peer Review College); Alex Rogers (Member, Peer Review College) Nature Conservation Trust, South Africa Sarah Durant (Trustee) Royal Society William Holt (Member, International Fellowships Award Panel) SCOR Panel on New Technologies for Observing Marine Life Alex Rogers (Vice Chair) Animal Conservation Tim Blackburn (Member, Editorial Board); Christopher Carbone (Member, Editorial Board); Guy Cowlishaw (Editor); Nick Isaac (Member, Editorial Board), Trent Garner (Editor) Animal Reproduction Science William Holt (Member, Editorial Board) Biological Reviews Guy Cowlishaw (Member, Editorial Board) Conservation Science and Practice book series Alex Rogers (Series Editor) Cryobiology William Holt (Member, Editorial Board) Diseases of Aquatic Organisms Andrew Cunningham (Member, Editorial Board; Review Editor EcoHealth Andrew Cunningham (Member, Editorial Board; Review Editor) Endangered Species Research Andrew Cunningham (Editor); Marcus Rowcliffe (Editor) Evolutionary Ecology Research Tim Blackburn (Editor) Global Ecology and Biogeography Tim Blackburn (Editor); Kate Jones (Associate Editor) Insect Conservation and Diversity Robert Ewers (Editor) Journal of Animal Ecology Peter Bennett (Associate Editor) Journal of Zoology Peter Bennett (Member, Editorial Board); Trent Garner (Member, Editorial Board) PLoS ONE Peter Bennett (Academic Editor) Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Guy Cowlishaw (Member, Editorial Board) Reproduction William Holt (Member, Editorial Board) Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society Alex Rogers (Sub-Editor) Sheep Trust William Holt (Trustee) Student Conference on Conservation Science Guy Cowlishaw (Member, Conference Advisory Committee) WildlifeDirect Jonathan Baillie (Scientific Advisor) World Organisation for Animal Health, Office International des Epizooties Andrew Cunningham (Member, Ad hoc Group on Amphibian Diseases) Zebra Foundation for Veterinary Zoological Education Becki Lawson (Council Member) collaborations / staff representation 31 Acevedo-Whitehouse, K. and Cunningham, A.A. (2006) Is MHC enough for understanding wildlife immunogenetics? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21: 433-438. Akçakaya, H.R., Butchart, S.H.M., Mace, G.M., Stuart, S.N. and Hilton-Taylor, C. (2006) Use and misuse of the IUCN Red List Criteria in projecting climate change impacts on biodiversity. Global Change Biology 12: 20372043. Anderson, J., Rowcliffe, J.M. and Cowlishaw, G. (2007) Does the matrix matter? A forest primate in a complex agricultural landscape. Biological Conservation 135: 212-222. publications Anderson, J., Rowcliffe, J.M. and Cowlishaw, G. (2007) The Angola black-and-white colobus (Colobus angolensis palliatus) in Kenya: historical range contraction and current conservation status. American Journal of Primatology 69: 664-680. Bennett, E.L., Blencowe, E., Brandon, K., Brown, D., Burn, R.W., Cowlishaw, G., Davies, G., Dublin, H., Fa, J.E., Milner-Gulland, E.J., Robinson, J.G., Rowcliffe, J.M., Underwood, F.M. and Wilkie, D.S. (2006) Hunting for consensus: reconciling bushmeat harvest, conservation and development policy in west and central Africa. Conservation Biology 21: 884-887. Bhadury, P., Austen, M.C., Bilton, D.T., Lambshead, P.J.D., Rogers, A.D. and Smerdon, G.R. (2006) Molecular detection of marine nematodes from environmental samples: overcoming eukaryotic interference. Aquatic Microbial Ecology 44: 97-103. Bhadury, P., Austen, M.C., Bilton, D.T., Lambshead, P.J.D., Rogers, A.D. and Smerdon, G.R. (2006) Development and evaluation of a DNA-barcoding approach for the rapid identification of marine nematodes. Marine Ecology – Progress Series 320: 1-9. Bhadury, P., Austen, M.C., Bilton, D.T., Lambshead, P.J.D., Rogers, A.D. and Smerdon, G.R. (2007) Exploitation of archived marine nematodes – a hot lysis DNA extraction protocol for molecular studies. Zoologica Scripta 36(1): 93-98. Bielby, J., Mace, G.M., Bininda-Emonds, O.R.P., Cardillo, M., Gittleman, J.L., Jones, K.E., Orme, C.D.L. and Purvis, A. (2007) The fast-slow continuum in mammalian life history: an empirical reevaluation. American Naturalist 169: 748-757. Bininda-Emonds, O.R.P., Beck, R.M.D., Cardillo, M., Gittleman, J.L., Grenyer, R., Jones, K.E., Mace, G.M., Price, S.A. and Purvis, A. (2006) The Tree of Life: deciphering the puzzle of relationships between mammals using supertrees. In The Encyclopedia of Mammals: 32-33. Macdonald, D. (Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bininda-Emonds, O.R.P., Cardillo, M., Jones, K.E., MacPhee, R.D.E., Beck, R.M.D., Grenyer, R., Price, S.A., Vos, R.A., Gittleman, J.L. and Purvis, A. (2007) The delayed rise of presentday mammals. Nature 446: 507-512. Boakes, E.H., Wang, J. and Amos, W. (2007) An investigation of inbreeding depression and purging in captive pedigreed populations. Heredity 98(3): 172-182. Bridle, J.R. and Vines, T.H. (2007) Limits to evolution at range margins: when and why does adaptation fail?Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22(3): 140-147. Bridle, J.R., Saldamando, C.I., Koning, W. and Butlin, R.K. (2006) Assortative preferences and discrimination by females against hybrid male song in the grasshoppers Chorthippus brunneus and Chorthippus jacobsi (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19(4): 1248-1256. Bro-Jørgensen, J. (2007) The intensity of sexual selection predicts weapon size in male bovids. Evolution 61: 1316-1326. Bro-Jørgensen, J., Johnstone, R.A. and Evans, M.R. (2007) Uninformative exaggeration of male sexual ornaments in barn swallows. Current Biology 17: 850-855. Bull, J.C., Pickup, N.J., Pickett, B., Hassell, M.P. and Bonsall, M.B. (2007) Metapopulation extinction risk is increased by environmental stochasticity and assemblage complexity. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 274: 87-96. Butchart, S.H.M., Akçakaya, H.R., Chanson, J., Baillie, J.E.M., Collen, B., Quader, S., Turner, W. R., Amin, R., Stuart, S.N. and Hilton-Taylor, C. (2007) Improvements to the Red List Index. PLoS ONE 2(1): e140. 32 publications Carbone, C., Teacher, A. and Rowcliffe, J.M. (2007) The costs of carnivory. PLoS Biology 5(2): e22. Cassey, P., Ewen, J.G., Karadas, F. and Hauber, M.E. (2006) Repeatability of laboratory measurements for maternally derived yolk carotenoid concentrations in bird eggs. Australian Journal of Zoology 54(6): 381-384. Clarke, A., Johnston, N.M., Murphy, E.J. and Rogers, A.D. (2007) Introduction. Antarctic ecology from genes to ecosystems: the impact of climate change and the importance of scale. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B 362: 5-9. Cooper, A.B., Pettorelli, N. and Durant, S.M. (2007) Large carnivore menus: factors affecting hunting decisions by cheetahs in the Serengeti. Animal Behaviour 73: 651-659. Cox, T.M., Ragen, T.J., Read, A.J., Vos, E., Baird, R.W., Balcomb, K., Barlow, J., Caldwell, J., Cranford, T., Crum, L., D’Amico, A., D’Spain, G., Fernández, A., Finneran, J., Gentry, R., Gerth, W., Gulland, F., Hildebrand, J., Houser, D., Hullar, T., Jepson, P.D., Ketten, D., MacLeod, C.D., Miller, P., Moore, S., Mountain, D., Palka, D., Ponganis, P., Rommel, S., Rowles, T., Taylor, B., Tyack, P., Wartzok, D., Gisiner, R., Mead, J. and Benner, L. (2006) Understanding the impacts of anthropogenic sound on beaked whales. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 7: 177-187. Cruz-Neto, A.P. and Jones, K.E. (2006) Exploring the evolution of the basal metabolic rates of bats. In Functional and Evolutionary Ecology of Bats: 56-89. Zubaid, A., McCracken, G.F. and Kunz, T.H. (Eds). New York: Oxford University Press. Cuthbert, R., Green, R.E., Ranade, S., Saravanan, S., Pain, D.J., Prakash, V. and Cunningham, A.A. (2006) Rapid population declines of Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) and red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) in India. Animal Conservation 9: 349-354. Davies, R.G., Orme, C.D.L., Olson, V., Thomas, G.H., Ross, S.G., Ding, T-S., Rasmussen, P.C., Stattersfield, A.J., Bennett, P.M., Blackburn, T.M., Owens, I.P.F. and Gaston, K.J. (2006) Human impacts and the global distribution of extinction risk. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 273: 2127-2133. Davies, R.G., Orme, C.D.L., Storch, D., Olson, V.A., Thomas, G.H., Ross, S.G., Ding, T-S., Rasmussen, P.C., Bennett, P.M., Blackburn, T.M., Owens, I.P.F. and Gaston, K.J. (2007) Topography, energy and the global distribution of bird species richness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 274: 1189-1197. Davies, R.G., Orme, C.D.L., Webster, A.J., Jones, K.E., Blackburn, T.M. and Gaston, K.J. (2007) Environmental predictors of global parrot (Aves: Psittaciformes) species richness and phylogenetic diversity. Global Ecology and Biogeography 16: 220-233. De Eyto, E., McGinnity, P., Consuegra, S., Coughlan, J., Tufto, J., Farrell, K., Megens, H.-J., Jordan, W.C., Cross, T. and Stet, R.J.M. (2007) Natural selection acts on Atlantic salmon major histocompatibility (MH) variability in the wild. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 274: 861-869. Dzyuba, B., Van Look, K.J.W., Cliffe, A., Koldeway, H.J. and Holt, W.V. (2006) Effect of parental age and associated size on fecundity, growth and survival in the yellow seahorse Hippocampus kuda. Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 3055-3061. Elofsson, H., Van Look, K.J.W., Sundell, K., Sundh, H. and Borg, B. (2006) Stickleback sperm saved by salt in ovarian fluid. Journal of Experimental Biology 209(21): 4230-4237. Ewen, J.G., Flux, I. and Ericson, P.G.P. 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Taggart, M.A., Cuthbert, R., Das, D., Sashikumar, C., Pain, D.J., Green, R.E., Feltrer, Y., Shultz, S., Cunningham, A.A. and Meharg, A.A. (2007) Diclofenac disposition in Indian cow and goat with reference to Gyps vulture population declines. Environmental Pollution 147: 60-65. Turvey, S.T. (2007) Asaphoid trilobites from the ArenigLlanvirn of the south China plate. Palaeontology 50(2): 347-399. Turvey, S.T., Oliver, J.R., Narganes Storde, Y.M. and Rye, P. (2007) Late Holocene extinction of Puerto Rican native land mammals. Biology Letters 3: 193-196. Turvey, S.T. and Siveter, D.J. (2007) Assignment of the South Chinese Ordovician trilobite Calymene paronai to Neseuretus. Alcheringa 31: 173-183. Pickard, A.R. and Holt, W.V. (2007) Contraception in wildlife. Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care 33(1): 48-52. Van Look, K.J.W., Dzyuba, B., Cliffe, A., Koldeway, H.J. and Holt, W.V. (2007) Dimorphic sperm and the unlikely route to fertilisation in the yellow seahorse. Journal of Experimental Biology 210: 432-437. Prathalingam, N.S., Watson, P.F., Revell, S.G., Busby, J. and Holt, W.V. (2007) The response of bovine spermatozoa to bicarbonate and its use to assess the influence of added oviductal epithelial proteins on cryopreservation. Journal of Andrology 28: 407-415. Van Look, K.J.W., Paull, G.C., Santos, E.M., Tyler, C.R. and Holt, W.V. (2006) Testicular asymmetry in zebrafish. Human Fertility 9(2): 107. Racey, P.A., Barratt, E.M., Burland, T.M., Deaville, R., Gottelli, D., Jones, G. and Piertney, S.B. (2007) Microsatellite DNA polymorphism confirms reproductive isolation and reveals differences in population genetic structure of cryptic pipistrelle bat species. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 90: 539-550. Rands, S.A., Pettifor, R.A., Rowcliffe, J.M. and Cowlishaw, G. (2006) Social foraging and dominance relationships: the effects of socially mediated interference. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology 60(4): 572-581. Rogers, A.D. (2006) New molecular approaches to biodiversity assessment in species rich environments. Prospects for international collaboration in marine environmental research to enhance understanding of the deep-sea environment. Proceedings of the International Seabed Authority's Workshop. Kingston, Jamaica, 2002. Sanchez-Thorin, A. C., Laurance, W.F., Perdomo, C. and Ewers, R.M. (2006) Physical damage to artificial seedlings in relation to distance from tropical forest edges. Ecotropica 12: 161-166. Wang, J.L. (2006) Informativeness of genetic markers for pairwise relationship and relatedness inference. Theoretical Population Biology 70(3): 300-321. Charman, T. (2006) Conservation ecology and genetics of the great yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus). University of Cambridge, UK. Ciborowski, K. (2007) Patterns of genetic variability during the decline of Iberian Atlantic salmon populations. University of Reading, UK. Rees, S. (2006) Conservation genetics and ecology of the endangered black bog ant, Formica picea. University of Wales, Cardiff, UK. Sandbrook, C. (2007) Tourism, conservation and livelihoods: the impacts of gorilla tracking at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. University College London, UK. MSc Theses – Wild Animal Biology Awarded by University of London, UK Beber, R. (2006) Population density estimation from camera trapping. Black, A. (2006) Behavioural and nutritional exploration of a giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) showing signs of marked weight loss and poor body condition. Booth, C. (2006) Effects of marine contaminants on the DNA of cetaceans. Gouveia, A. (2006) Factors affecting population dynamics in captive Partula snails. Kempson, A. (2006) An investigation into the spatial distribution patterns of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis on a coastal Canadian island. Lavers, A. (2006) The role of density dependence in the effect of parasitism on the health and fecundity of the UK harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena. Petetti, L. (2006) Genetic heterozygosity and hookworm (Uncinaria spp.) resistance in New Zealand sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri) pups. Pini, E. (2006) Chytridiomycosis in the Caribbean: informing risk assessments and mitigating actions. Snow, C. (2006) Non-invasive faecal steroid analysis to investigate the reproductive activity in the fishing cat, Prionailurus viverrinus. de Stefano, M. L. (2006) How heavily has Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis penetrated UK amphibians. Wallwork, A. (2006) Effect of distance and speed of chase prior to chemical immobilisation on serum creatine kinase and myoglobin in free-ranging black rhinoceroses (Diceros bicornis) in Zimbabwe. Wardley, T. (2006) Welfare of the pool frog following reintroduction. Wong, W-M. (2006) The distribution of chytridiomycosis in Canada. MSc Theses – Wild Animal Health Awarded by University of London, UK McMeekin, R.M. (2006) Haematology and biochemistry in a wild population of desert baboons (Papio ursinus). Middleton, V. (2006) A retrospective study of cardiac pathology in captive wild cats. Rice, C. (2006) The prevalence and intensity of infection with the respiratory parasites Linguatula serrata and Pneumonyssus (Pneumonyssoides) caninum in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Great Britain. Rosetyadewi, A. (2006) Patterns of chytrid infection in native Swiss amphibians: variation among sites, species and life history stages. Smok, G. (2006) Correlation of ante-mortem ophidian paramyxovirus serology results with post-mortem pathology and pulmonary histology. Suu-Ire, R. (2206) Prevalence of Trichinella infection in marine mammals. Twitchett, M. (2006) Training of tigers for routine veterinary procedures: Investigating the efficiency of once daily versus twice daily training. Wenger, S. (2006) The cardiopulmonary effects of fieldanaesthetized white rhinoceros using a combination of etorphine, azaperone, detomidine and butorphanol. van Zijll Langhout, M. (2006) Cryptosporidium sp., Giardia sp. and Balantidium infections in habituated and non-habituated western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) populations in Lope National Park, Gabon. publications 33 For further information about the Institute of Zoology please contact: Tim Blackburn Head of the Institute of Zoology Institute of Zoology The Zoological Society of London Regent’s Park London NW1 4RY Telephone 020 7449 6610 enquiries@ioz.ac.uk www.zsl.org © 2007 The Zoological Society of London. Registered charity no. 208728 Edited by Linda DaVolls Design by newlevel.co.uk All rights are reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. 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