Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 7 March 2018

Biologists turn to citizens, DNA to count urban Alaska moose

By DAN JOLING dents.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) "That's what's going to
— Moose thrive in Alaska's make or break this study,"
largest city with little to fear said David Saalfeld, an-
from natural predators such other state biologist. "Public
as wolves or bears, but get- involvement."
ting an accurate count of Biologists traditionally esti-
the largest member of the mate wildlife abundance
deer family remains a chal- with the "mark-recapture"
lenge for the state wildlife method of capturing and
biologists who must man- tagging or collaring ani-
age their numbers. mals and then allowing
Traditionally, aerial surveys them to remix with the gen-
are performed from low- eral population.
flying aircraft after there's Populations are sampled
snow on the ground when later and abundance esti-
spotters can distinguish be- mates are made based on
tween male moose with the count of marked ani-
antlers and cows without mals.
them, but flight rules from Farley said the current sur-
Anchorage's international vey is a research project
airport prohibit the survey but he's optimistic it could
flights. help biologists estimate An-
In response to those restric- In this Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, photo, Dave Battle of the Alaska Department Fish and Game waits chorage's moose popula-
for a moose to move off after firing a dart into its side that's designed to obtain a skin sample in
tions, the Alaska Depart- Anchorage, Alaska. tion.
ment of Fish and Game Associated Press At worst, the three-days of
is experimenting with a DNA sampling will be the
new method of surveying get close to calves. Moose length darts into the sides into the snow. basis for a future mark-re-
moose. Biologists for three use their hooves to stomp of both moose, which were Surveys suggest most An- capture study of Anchor-
days last month asked An- on people or dogs if cor- startled and moved a few chorage residents like shar- age moose.
chorage residents to call or nered. feet before resuming feed- ing their yards with moose. "If the math works, and
text whenever they spotted Anchorage spans 1,963 ing. The darts felt like bee Biologists said their partici- again, that's relying on
moose. Teams of moose square miles (5,080 square sting, researchers said. pation in the survey is cru- people who are a lot
trackers with dart guns then kilometers), an area the A skin sample wraps around cial, and the department brighter than me, then yes,
hurried to the locations. The size of the U.S. state of Del- a needle in the tip of the received 510 calls and texts in the first year, you could
darts they fired captured aware. The city has 300,000 darts, which have heavy over the three-day moose come up with a measure of
DNA samples. people, but the moose barrels to make them fall reporting period for resi- abundance," he said.q
DNA analysis will let re- population is unknown.
searchers calculate the Though hunting is not al- Einstein note fetches $6,100 at Jerusalem auction
ratio of bulls to cows. The lowed in most of the city,
samples also will be the biologists want to know JERUSALEM (AP) — For Al-
start of a database to iden- how many moose move in bert Einstein, it turns out the
tify individual moose, with- and out of hunting areas. law of attraction was rela-
out the expense of captur- "We've been taking an ed- tive. A handwritten note by
ing them. ucated guess," said area bi- the Nobel-winning scientist,
"Think of it as building a fam- ologist Dave Battle. "There's written to a young woman
ily tree," said Sean Farley, a really been no technique who apparently caught his
state research biologist. up until now and it's some- eye during a trip to Italy,
While other U.S. cities get thing we've been kind of was sold at auction in Jeru-
overrun with deer raiding beating our heads against salem on Tuesday.
gardens, Anchorage resi- the wall for the last couple Winner's Auctions and Exhi-
dents are used to steering of years about it." bitions said Einstein was vis-
clear of moose because Battle was among teams iting his sister in Florence in
hitting them with a car can collecting DNA. After re- October 1921 and learned
be fatal to both animal ceiving a call reporting a that a young chemistry stu-
and driver. Bulls weighing moose cow and her calf, This undated photo provided by Winner's Auctions and Exhibi- dent named Elisabetta Pic-
up to 1,600 pounds (726 he found them in the yard tions shows a letter by Albert Einstein to a young chemistry stu- cini lived in the apartment
dent named Elisabetta Piccini he wrote on his visit to Florence
kilograms) are dangerous of a home foraging for in October 1921, that will be auctioned in Jerusalem March 6, upstairs. It said the 42-year-
during the fall rut and cows twigs. 2018. old Einstein was interested
will attack people if they He fired weighted, pencil- Associated Press in meeting the 22-year-
old woman, who was the
daughter of a famous
chemist, but she was too
shy and turned him down.
When Einstein left Florence,
he left the signed note in
German: "To the scientific
researcher, at whose feet
I lay and sat for two full
days, as a friendly souve-
nir." The auction house did
not disclose the buyers.q