Life history: Scholars call for greater collaboration between zoos,
museums

Date:
April 21, 2022
Source:
Yale University
Summary:
The animal collections housed at zoos and natural history museums
- - living specimens in the first case, preserved in the other -
- constitute an exhaustive trove of information about Earth's
biodiversity. A new paper lays out a pathway to increasing
collaboration between these groups that would enhance our
understanding of the animal kingdom.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The animal collections housed at zoos and natural history museums --
living specimens in the first case, preserved in the other -- constitute
an exhaustive trove of information about Earth's biodiversity. Yet,
zoos and museums rarely share data with each other.


==========================================================================
A new paper published in the journal BioScience lays out a pathway to increasing collaboration between these groups that would enhance our understanding of the animal kingdom.

"Museums have a wealth of preserved specimens that provide scientists
massive amounts of information, but very little data about how the animals lived their day-to-day life," said Gregory Watkins-Colwell, collection
manager for herpetology and ichthyology at the Yale Peabody Museum and
a co-author of the paper. "Zoos and aquariums, on the other hand, have
rich data on an animal's life history, behavior, and health. Combining
this complementary information would be a boon to scholars and serve
the research and educational missions of both museums and zoos."
Institutions accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums hold
about 800,000 living animals, primarily in the United States. Zoos
and aquariums keep extensive records for each animal in their care,
including information on their life history, behavior, health, pedigree, physiology, and husbandry protocols used during their life, such as diet
and veterinary treatments. They also periodically collect and preserve biological samples, such as blood, plasma, and DNA.

Natural history museums house roughly 500 million to 1 billion biological specimens in the United States and about 3 billion worldwide, according to
the paper. A specimen's records typically include information on where,
when, and by whom it was collected, as well as its taxonomy and method
of preservation.

These records tend to capture the moment in the animal's life immediately preceding its death but offer little information about all the time
before that, Watkins-Colwell explained.

"Natural history museums would clearly benefit from having access to
the detailed life-history records zoos keep, which are data largely
unavailable to museums and the researchers who rely on them," he
said. "For example, the blood chemistry of a cheetah could be very
valuable to a researcher. At the same time, zoos can also be important
sources of preserved specimens for museums." Many zoos house species
that are rare, endangered, or even extinct in the wild, making them
extremely difficult, if not impossible, for museums to collect ethically, according to the paper, whose 35 co-authors represent zoos and museums
located throughout the United States. Disposing of deceased animals
is a logistical and often a legal necessity for zoos, which lack the
expertise and facilities to house preserved specimens, the authors
add. As an alternative, zoos could deposit specimens of high scientific
value with natural history museums, extending the research and teaching
value of their collections and strengthening their credibility as conservation-oriented scientific organizations.



========================================================================== Depositing specimens in museums can help zoos learn more about the
health of the animal while it was living under their care -- perhaps an elephant had an infected tooth that went undetected while it was living -- knowledge that could inform a zoo's practices and benefit its collections, Watkins-Colwell explained.

"Depositing a specimen from a zoo into a museum can extend the 'life'
of that animal in perpetuity -- providing research, education, and
conservation opportunities for years to come," said Alex Shepack, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Notre Dame and coauthor on
the paper.

There are existing partnerships between zoos and museums. For example,
the Peabody Museum has received specimens from zoos across the United
States. Since 2010, the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas has donated
more than 770 specimens and tissue samples to the museum. Those materials
have been used in 22 research projects and courses at Yale.

The barriers to increased collaboration are largely cultural,
Watkins-Colwell said.

"When we started discussions between zoo and museum staff, we realized
how little each other understood of the ways we all use collections and maintain data," said co-author Steven Whitfield, a conservation biologist
at Zoo Miami.

"As we worked together over three days to organize this manuscript, we saw great interest in collaborations from people who had really never been in
a room together." The two types of institutions vary in their emphasis on research. While many museums are heavily focused on research, zoos place
more emphasis on the health and welfare of their living specimens, the
paper explained. There can also be legal hurdles to transferring animal specimens between zoos and museums, and the digital record management
systems that museums and zoos use are often incompatible.



========================================================================== "However, what should unite these institutions is a shared interest in preserving biodiversity, in its various forms, and contributing to our collective knowledge of these animals," said Sinlan Poo, senior research scientist at the Memphis Zoo and lead author of the paper.

Ultimately, enhanced collaboration will require staff at zoos and museums
to build relationships and share their ideas and scientific approaches
with each other. The new paper, Watkins-Colwell said, is a first step
in initiating that dialogue.

Gary P. Aronsen, a biological anthropologist and supervisor of the Yale Biological Anthropology Laboratories, is also a co-author of the paper.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Yale_University. Original written
by Mike Cummings. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sinlan Poo, Steven M Whitfield, Alexander Shepack, Gregory
J Watkins-
Colwell, Gil Nelson, Jillian Goodwin, Allison Bogisich, Patricia L
R Brennan, Jennifer D'Agostino, Michelle S Koo, Joseph R Mendelson,
Rebecca Snyder, Sandra Wilson, Gary P Aronsen, Andrew C Bentley,
David C Blackburn, Matthew R Borths, Mariel L Campbell, Dalia A
Conde, Joseph A Cook, Juan D Daza, Daniel P Dembiec, Jonathan L
Dunnum, Catherine M Early, Adam W Ferguson, Amanda Greene, Robert
Guralnick, Courtney Janney, Debbie Johnson, Felicia Knightly,
Stephane Poulin, Luiz Rocha, Pamela S Soltis, Barbara Thiers,
Prosanta Chakrabarty. Bridging the Research Gap between Live
Collections in Zoos and Preserved Collections in Natural History
Museums. BioScience, 2022; DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biac022 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220421100138.htm

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