Virtual Report (1) - Virginia Working Landscapes: Connecting with Communities to Inform Research and Conservation
Names of the Presenters:
Dr. Amy Johnson, the program director for Virginia Working Landscapes from Smithsonians National Zoo and Conversation
Biology Institute, and Sarah Wade.
Summary
In this Zoom presentation, Dr. Amy Johnson spoke primarily on the subject of birds facing hardships, mostly in Virginia,
because of poor management of grasslands; And she went on to explain what Virginia Working Landscapes (VWL) is doing to
combat this. It started off with talks of biodiversity and just general facts about grasslands in North America and how
they are one of the most affected biomes in North America for a multitude of reasons. Once this was explained, she went
into detail about the loss of birds in the previous few decades and how birds in grasslands have had the largest losses.
Focusing on ground birds in Virginia, Dr. Johnson explained how VWL has worked with private landowners and farmers
of grasslands in the state to survey their land to study the ground birds and help them implement solutions to keep
the ground birds' populations stable in the region. This is where the bulk of the presentation was spent as there were so
many ways that they worked with land owners and farmers and conducted surveys and experiments. For example, on the farmlands,
farmers haying interrupts ground birds from nesting in time, and because of how fast the process is due to technology, the
birds cannot flee in time. Experiments showed that by just delaying the haying time by a few weeks, the clutches of eggs that
hatched and surveyed were up to 89%, and farmers participating in this could receive compensation from the state of Virginia
for helping conservation efforts for the ground birds since it delays their haying season.
Convincing or Not?
Overall, I found this presentation very convincing. Dr. Johnson started out very strong with facts about grasslands,
birds, and then specifically grasslands in Virginia. Within just a few minutes, we learned how North America's native
grasslands have declined by 99%, insects in grasslands by 67%, over 3 billion birds have died in recent years and 700
million of them being grassland birds (the largest amount of any of the birds that died), and that two-thirds of US
grasslands are on privately owned lands. That is an alarming amount of information to be thrown at you all at once,
and it makes you understand right off the bat that this is a serious problem and gives her a lot of credibility.
The next point that helped make the presentation convincing was that it went into great detail into how VWL is
working with private landowners to better study ground birds in grasslands. Since many of Virginia's grasslands
are prviately owned, they have to work with landowners in order to survey the land. Now, you may think that many
private landowners would not want people going through their property to survey things, but it is quite the contrary.
Those that own lots of land, most of the time own it for a reason: because they like it! They don't want the animals
to go extinct on their properties and the surrounding areas. Ideally, they want their properties to be as natura
l as possible and that is why they haven't just sold the land. Dr. Johnson explaining this definitely made the
presentation more convincing as it added more depth to it. There is more than just going places and counting/studying
animals, you actually have to interact with these land owners and show them how to better help the animals that are on
their properties. And Dr. Johnson explained how they get farmers and landowners to delay haying or mowing properties
for a few weeks in the year to better protect groundbirds and their hatchlings. But they do this with particular areas
of each participant's properties so that they can continue to do what they normally do on some parts of their
properties, but are still doing their part to help the wildlife by only using a part of their property. This
also adds credibility to the project because realistically most people wouldn't want to not be able to use
all of their property as it is still theirs to use and enjoy. By all the participating landowners
allowing VWL to use a little bit of their properties, it creates a much larger habitat zone for
the ground birds. By providing the statistics and logistics of how the project has been
carried out and is evolving, it gives the viewers a better understanding of how the project
works and makes all the research and facts given to us seem very legitimate, which in turnmakes it convincing.
Link to the zoom recording of the presentation
Virtual Report (2) - Breeding the Unbreedable: Assisted Reproduction in Cheetah
Names of the Presenters:
Kristen Goodhue and Dr. Adrienne Crosier
Summary
In this Zoom Presentation, Dr. Adrienne Crosier talked about the reproductive abilities of Cheetahs. Due to many
factors such as the pet trade, habitat loss, and human conflict, cheetahs are endangered animals. In 1975 their
numbers in the wild were estimated to be around 30,000, but now they have an estimated wild population of 7,000.
If this wasn't already problematic enough, Cheetahs actually have many problems associated with procreation.
Many male Cheetahs have poor-quality sperm or sperm with genetic imperfections that lead to low conception rates.
Female cheetahs generally can only reproduce from ages 3-7, which is a much smaller range of reproduction years
than males, so this only worsens the already low conception rates. Dr. Adrienne Crosier discusses the work to
increase the cheetah population. Due to a relatively high population of Cheetahs in captivity (approximately
20% of all cheetahs), fertility and conception research is being performed. One strategy being used is collecting
cheetah sperm and creating a sperm bank. By doing this, researchers can find healthy quality sperm and be able to
store it for later artificial breeding. This is better than waiting and hoping that Cheetahs will breed on
their own successfully because that is a rare occurrence. For females, they try and find females that can
conceive offspring easily, and then transfer the embryos to younger females with healthier ovarian
tissue so that the embryos can come to term and increase the probability of a healthy litter being born.
The results from the research are that healthy cubs are being born regularly and the experiments are proving
successful. While there are some hiccups such as faulty equipment, the results show that Cheetahs
can make a comeback because of the work that is being done.
Convincing or Not?
The presentation was convincing due to all the data and information provided. The presenter started out with the problem
that is facing cheetahs. By providing statistics and maps of habitat loss, it was easy to convey to the reader that cheetahs
are facing a decline in population and reproduction rates. We learned how wild cheetah populations have gone from 30,000 to
around 7,000 in the span of a few decades. Such a drastic drop in population displays the significance of the problems
facing cheetahs. From here, we were given information on the reproduction of cheetahs. We saw pictures of sperm from
cheetahs and saw the varying quality of the sperm, so that way we would understand how many male cheetahs have sperm
problems and this is a main contributing factor towards their reproduction issues. Visually showing the quality issues
of the sperm further conveys to the audience that this is a serious problem. The same type of logic is applied to female
cheetahs later in the presentation. We learn about how ovarian and vaginal tissues in cheetahs are susceptible to
pre-cancer conditions and this causes the females to have a lower chance of being able to reproduce successfully.
They also displayed images of what the healthy tissue looked like, versus unhealthy tissue. By seeing this, it helps
immerse the reader in what is being talked about. After this, we learned how female cheetahs between the ages 3 and
7 are the most likely to be able to reproduce, and any ages besides these are very unlikely for the cheetahs to
successfully reproduce. To display this, a reproduction probability vs ages graph was displayed. In this graph,
we can see how males have a larger reproduction period than females, so it makes it easy to convey that reproduction
is hard for cheetahs. After all of these images, data, and information were shared, the presenter then proceeded
to talk about what work was being done to help cheetahs. A sperm bank was made for cheetahs to store good-quality
sperm. And transplanting embryos from older cheetahs into younger cheetahs increases the probability of successful
reproduction. Data from trials was provided to show how effective embryo transplanting was. The data was from
around 10 situations and we were given data on how old the original cheetah was, how old the new cheetah was,
how many embryos were transplanted, and the number of cubs that were successfully birthed. The data also
showed how two scenarios had faulty equipment so the embryos were all lost. This kind of transparency of what
does not work for the work helps the audience feel like they are a part of the work and better relate to what
is being shown to them. Giving information, explaining the problem, and then showing the solution with
results is how the presenter effectively conveys their argument about cheetahs.