SOPHIE DANFORTH CONSERVATION BIOLOGY FUND

Since 1989, Roger Williams Park Zoo and the Rhode Island Zoological Society have awarded a total of over 40 annual grants of $1000 each to conservation projects worldwide through the Sophie Danforth Conservation Biology Fund. Many of the supported projects continue to grow and succeed. This is a vital but often unseen part of the zoo’s conservation efforts. New for 2008, we will be offering a $5,000 grant for innovative amphibian conservation research. Find out about the SDCBF Application Process.

Congratulations to the 2007 Recipients of the
Sophie Danforth Conservation Biology Fund:

Project Title:
Conservation of Island Ecosystems Using Seabird Restoration

Project Goal:
This project seeks to evaluate seabird restoration on a short time scale and provide a whole-ecosystem focus for Island restoration projects. The project will measure nutrient levels on islands with different histories of seabird reduction or elimination due to invasive mammals and combine this data with seabird population models in order to ascertain the target seabird recovery density needed to restore island nutrients to pre-invasion leveles.

Location: New Zealand

Principal Investigator: Holly Jones

Project Title:
A conservation-oriented effort to understand a chytridiomycosis-induced tropic cascade

Project Goal:
Chytridiomycosis- induced amphibian declines are sweeping the world, resulting in a devastating loss of abundance and diversity. Effects on other organisms within the ecosystem are difficult to assess. This study will look at Mollusk eating snakes (Sibon spp.) that seasonally depend on frog eggs overhanging small Neotropical streams for food. Following a sudden and drastic loss in local amphibian diversity, Sibon spp. have been observed in poor condition. Utilizing surveys at a long term study site, the project will quantify effects of amphibian decline for Sibon spp., thus allowing for development of management strategies and providing a model for preservation of upper-tropic organisms.

Location:

Principal Investigator: Julie M. Ray

Project Title:
Isolation effects on the genetic status of beaver (Castor canadensis) in two riparian ecosystems in Arizona, US and Sonora, Mexico: implications for conservation

Project Goal:
Beavers are ecosystem engineers that provide habitat to many other species, however in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, beavers had been almost exterminated, therefore their conservation is imperative. Using microsatellites loci the project will determine the effects of geographic isolation, the size and genetic population structure of a relictual beaver population in the Cajon Bonito River in Mexico, and a recently reintroduced population in San Pedro River, U.S. These populations will be compared to northern beaver populations in the U.S. to determine their genetic status and generate conservation plans of beavers in the southern limit of their range.

Location: Arizona and Sonora, Mexico

Principal Investigator: Karla Pelz-Serrano

Project Title:
Kibale Community Fuel Wood Project

Project Goal:
The major goals and objectives of the KCFWP are to establish demonstration tree areas and actively promote home-grown wood and through an educational outreach program enhance appreciation for the National Park and its wildlife while teaching and encouraging the use of environmentally sustainable practices.
These goals have been accomplished.  Fulfillment of these measurable goals is also helping achieve the project’s stated purpose of protecting Kibale National Park from human encroachment and improving park-people relations by facilitating energy stability in surrounding villages.

Location: Fort Portal, Uganda

Principal Investigators: Rebecca Goldstone and Michael Stern, Chimp-n-Sea Wildlife Conservation Fund

Project Title:
Management of Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in the Fragmented Tropical Dry Forests of Nicaragua

Project Goal:
Central American primates face immediate conservation threats due to severe forest fragmentation. The non-profit organization, Paso Pacifico, is currently working with private landowners in southwest Nicaragua to establish a network of protected areas and wildlife corridors. As part of the reserve design process, this project will use new genetic techniques to identify critical habitat patches for the countries most vulnerable primate, the Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi). The project will survey new study sites and continued collection of non-invasive genetic samples. The applied goal is to assess forest connectivity for wildlife, which is necessary to build an effective conservation management plan.

Location: Nicaragua

Principal Investigators: Carol Chambers, Suzanne Hagell

Sophie Danforth Conservation Biology Fund
2006 Award Recipients

Project Title:
Involving Teachers and Small Producers to Develop Community Support for Conservation of the Atlantic Forest and the Golden Lion Tamarin

Project Goal:
The Atlantic coastal forest of Brazil is a global priority for conservation because of its high biodiversity and high proportion of endemic species. The unplanned growth of the cities, and agricultural practices have fragmented this forest to dangerous levels. This initiative will work with local landowners and school to develop a pilot education project aimed to develop community support for the restoration of the forest corridors. This project will contribute to a larger ongoing effort to restore connectivity to the forest landscape permitting the long term conservation of a viable population of Golden lion tamarins as well as a vital watershed.

Location: Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil

Principal Investigator: Aline Leite Nunes

Project Title:
Inventory, distribution and Conservation action of the critically endangered Philippines forest turtle (Heosemys leytensis)

Project Goal:
This project will assess the distribution, habitat use, relative abundance, and threats to the critically endangered Philippine forest turtle in Palawan Island (Philippines) a world priority hot spot for bio-diversity. In addition, a global assessment will be conducted of all freshwater turtles living in Palawan, illegal suppliers of Philippine forest turtles will be identified, and an innovative educational program will be implemented. All data collected will be analyzed, and in conjunction with the Palawan Suitable Development Council, Palawan State University, and indigenous local groups, a long term core conservation plan will be proposed to insure the long term survival of the critically endangered Philippine forest turtle.

Location: Palawan, Philippines

Principal Investigator: Pierre Fidenci

Project Title:
Giant Anteaters on the Rupununi Savannas of Guyana

Project Goal:
Giant anteaters are a flagship species throughout Latin America, but due to habitat destruction and illegal hunting have been listed by the IUCN as threatened. This study will be used to examine impacts on disturbance on Giant anteaters and prompt governmental regulations if necessary. It will also provide the first information on hormones in wild giant anteaters, essential for captive reproductive management of this species.

Location: Guyana

Principal Investigator: Danielle Brown - California Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology

Project Title:
Kibale Community Fuel Wood Project

Project Goal:
The major goals and objectives of the KCFWP are to establish demonstration tree areas and actively promote home-grown wood and through an educational outreach program enhance appreciation for the National Park and its wildlife while teaching and encouraging the use of environmentally sustainable practices. Fulfillment of these measurable goals is also helping achieve the project’s stated purpose of protecting Kibale National Park from human encroachment and improving park-people relations by facilitating energy stability in surrounding villages.

Location: Fort Portal, Uganda

Principal Investigators: Rebecca Goldstone and Michael Stern, Chimp-n-Sea Wildlife Conservation Fund

Project Title:
Restoring cheatgrass-degraded sagebrush steppe systems: The interaction of ant foraging behavior, seed pools, and restoration management initiatives

Project Goal:
Sagebrush-steppe in the Great Basin is being degraded by invasion of non-native plants such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum). This study will look at the interactions between seed harvesting ants and the seeds of native and non-native plant species in cheatgrass degraded areas and areas experimentally treated using a variety of restoration management techniques. Biologist will be looking at foraging behavior, the fate of ant collected seeds, and seedling establishment with and without Harvester ants in areas effected by cheatgrass and restoration techniques (fire, herbicide, mowing). Understanding ant-seed interactions in context of sagebrush-steppe restoration may improve our ability to maximize restoration efforts and better conserve this amazing habitat and the shrub-steppe species that depend on it.

Location: Utah, USA

Principal Investigator: Scott Newbold, Dept. of Biology and the Ecology Center, Utah State University

Sophie Danforth Conservation Biology Fund
Previous Award Recipients

Project Title: Involvement of Bedouins in the conservation of the endangered Egyptian toroise, T. kleinmanni
Principle Investigator: Omar Attum, University of Louisville
Project Goal: To save the highly endangered Egyptian tortoise in North Sinai, Egypt from extinction.

Project Title: Effects of small rodent seed predators on primary and secondary forest recruitment of Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica: Implications for Neotropical forests without large mammalian seed predators
Principle Investigator: Elizabeth DeMattia, University of Michigan
Project Goal: To determine the role of small mammals in tropical tree regeneration so tht forest diversity in Costa Rica can be better maintained and restored.

Project Title: Conservation biology of lowland tapirs (Tapirus  terrestris) and their potential as "landscape  detectives" at Pontal do Paranapanema Region,  Sao Paulo State, Brazil
Principle Investigator: Patricia Medici, Instituto de Pesquisas  Ecologicas
Project Goal: To protect and conserve lowland tapirs and the wildlife corridors of the Brazilian Atlantic forest.

Project Title: A program of wattled crane egg collection for the establishment of a viable captive population in South Africa
Principle Investigator: Lindy Rodwell, Endangered Wildlife Trust, South African Crane Working Group
Project Goal: To ensure the long-term survival of the critically endangered, genetically unique South African
sub-population of the wattled crane.

Project Title: Project Golden Frog/Proyecto Rana Dorada
Principle Investigators: Anthony Wisnieski and Vicky Poole, The Baltimore Zoo
Project Goal: To prevent the extinction of the endangered Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki)

Project Title: Conservation of an endangered frog species (Atelognathus patagonicus) in northern Patagonia, Argentina: Effects of water quality, UV-B radiation, fish predation, pathogens and their interaction
Principle Investigator: Joy Yoshioka, Oklahoma State University
(also a 2000 SDCBF recipient)
Project Goal: To determine and mitigate the causes for the decline toward extinction of this frog species, and to gain a better understanding of the factors that contribute to the declining amphibian phenomenon in general.

Jorge Botero, Cenicafe, Colombia
Ecology Of The Turquoise Dacnis (Dacnis Hartlaubi) A Rare Colombian Endemic In Coffee Regions.

Sam Cushman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Forest Fragmentation and Neo-tropical Migrants in Western Massachusetts: Fragmentation Thresholds, Matrix Effects and Residential Sprawl.

Mitch Eaton, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
Sustainable Hunting Wildlife in Central African Forests.

Nathaniel Hawley, Sea Grant Institute, University of Wisconson, Green Bay, WI
Patterns of Diversity and Habitat Associations in A Vulnerable Island Butterfly Fauna.

Carolina Zagal Roberts, CODEFF (Comité Nacional Pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora), Chile
Discovering the Diversity of Marine Invertebrates in Valdivia

Alexander Sanchez-Ruiz, Museo de Historia Natural Tomas Romay, Cuba
Illustrated Publication of Cuba Spider's Families to Be Distributed In the Community

Kimberly Whitman, Philadelphia Zoo, Philadelphia, PA Environmental Educator for Rodrigues, Mauritius

Joy Yoshioka, University of Oklahoma, Stillwater, OK
A Conservation Study on Atelognathus Patgonicus, An Endangered Frog of Patagonia, Argentina