WE NEED YOUR HELP TO COLLECT SAMPLES FROM SOUTHERN GROUND HORNBILLS FOR GENETIC ANALYSIS

 

Hi All! - that is everyone with possible access to, or the ability to find,  feathers, egg shells and, best of all, blood, from Southern (or Northern) Ground Hornbills, either in captivity or in the wilds of Africa, for vital genetic testing!

The National Zoological Gardens, Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa, are committed to and lead a project for genetic testing of Southern Ground Hornbills (Bucorvus leadbeateri). They have initiated and are providing the infrastructure for the collection and storage of samples, led by Dr Antionette Kotze, head of research at the Zoological Gardens,  with responsibility for providing kits and protocols via the NZG by Dr Paul Bartels, coordinated by Mr Eugene Marais, and guided by the geneticists Drs Dan York, Wayne Delport and Paulette Bloomer.

It has become essential to know the genetic structure of ground hornbill populations across Africa, and especially in South Africa, so that appropriate conservation management of the species can be planned and conducted. The Mabula Ground Hornbill Project, who we represent, and its associated Action Group that coordinates ex-situ breeding and management, have been actively committed to halting the decline of this flagship species since 1999. We can only hope to continue and expand that part of our work that involves captive breeding, harvesting of redundant second chicks, re-introduction back into the wild and augmentation of non-viable groups once we have clarified the necessary genetic information on the species.

For this to happen, the Project is driving the collection of DNA samples for testing and we need your help, please!

What we require are as many labeled samples as possible with as accurate information as possible, each with the original locality and individual identification of the ground hornbill that supplied the material. First prize would be for a drop of blood from each individual, preserved in a small vial of preservative that we will supply. If that is not attainable, then we also welcome any feathers (moulted or from dead specimens) and any fragments of egg shell, each item stored separately in a cool dry place. Samples will still be welcome even if you are not exactly sure of either the locality or the specific individual involved.

Because of the extreme difficulty of catching adult ground hornbills, perhaps the only way of acquiring blood samples from the wild will be to find groups in the breeding season, follow them to the nest containing fledglings and take a small amount of blood from each chick. We will supply you with protocols for finding and visiting nests, and for extracting a drop of blood. Moulted feathers are most often found around nests and fragments of egg shell may be located even after nesting has been completed.

If all the zoos and private collections with ground hornbills around the world could also take blood from their birds, especially if they have import papers proving the original wild source of their birds, this would go far to help sorting out this conundrum.

If you, and any of your colleagues, would like to join in this hunt for DNA samples please contact us and The National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria, will provide you with a sampling kit and a protocol on how to proceed and direct you, free of any costs, to a collection bank that will store this tissue material, and send it on for analysis. 

Thank you......your help to provide information on this long lived, and slow breeding bird which is suffering from a frightening decline in southern Africa, as well as public awareness of its plight, could be your gesture to help reverse the loss of our wildlife.

Very sincerely,

Ann Turner and Dr Alan Kemp