Copters, Darts and DNA
U of I Researcher Uses Dart Gun and Helicopter to Collect DNA from African Animals
The crocodile raced for the muddy water of Mozambique’s Urema River, its short legs sputtering, its long tail making rapid s-curves as Ryan Long leaned from the open door of a moving helicopter aiming a dart rifle.
The dart hit the soft tissue along the side of the croc’s tail, but the animal kept going, striking the water with a splash, leaving only a wake where it left the bank and submerged. The biopsy dart, meant to grab a small piece of the crocodile’s skin and fat from which biologists would collect DNA, did not rise from the murk.
The helicopter moved on with Long, a professor of wildlife sciences at the 幸运快三, reloading and scouting ahead as the chopper skimmed the surface of the savanna.
For his ongoing research, Long spends portions of his summers in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, home to herds of antelope, cape buffalo and elephants, where 16 years of civil war nearly destroyed the diverse ecosystem. During his latest research season Long chased animals with a helicopter to gather DNA that would be used in two separate projects coordinated with researchers at other universities.
“The goal for one of the studies was to collect a tissue sample from a male of as many different species in the park as we could. Those data will be part of a genomic mark-capture analysis designed to estimate population size and key demographic parameters of Gorongosa's large-animal populations as they continue to recover from near extirpation during the Mozambican Civil War,” Long said.
