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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 zoos 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 |