Scientists analyze DNA from feces to save elephants in Laos

Slow and quiet, Mae Khoun Nung, a former logger’s elephant, emerges from a forest in northern Laos and follows her handler to an animal hospital for a check-up.

Asian elephants like her, once abundant in the forests of Laos, have been decimated by habitat destruction, grueling work in the logging industry, poaching and limited breeding opportunities.

But conservationists hope that DNA evaluation of elephant dung will help them track down each captive and wild tusks in order that they can ensure a healthy gene pool and develop an efficient breeding plan to protect the species.

According to environmental group WWF-Laos, there are between 500 and 1,000 animals left in Laos – once proudly called “Lane Xang” or “Land of a Million Elephants”, representing only a third of the population 20 years ago.

About 10 elephants die yearly for each one to two elephants born, putting the animals prone to total extinction in this Southeast Asian country.

“The ultimate goal would be to secure a healthy population of captive elephants to act as a genetic reservoir in the event of a wildlife population collapse,” biologist Anabel Lopez Perez told AFP in her laboratory on the Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) in Sainyabuli province.

Once researchers find out how many individual elephants there are in the country – by testing cells containing DNA in dung – Perez said the breeding plan will help them manage genetic diversity, prevent inbreeding and produce healthier calves that might be released into the wild to bolster declining numbers. population.

At the ECC hospital, which shelters 28 elephants in its 500-hectare (1,200-acre) sanctuary, Mae Khoun Nung climbs onto a tall metal scaffold designed specifically for animal control.

Sounthone Phitsamone, who manages the middle’s elephant keepers and serves as a veterinarian’s assistant, pats the animal’s leg and she or he calmly lifts her foot for him to check.

He uses a knife to cut cracks and crevices into her hard, mud-stained nail.

Mae Khoun Nung spent her adult life logging until she was surrendered to ECC by her owner in 2014 when the work ended and maintenance became increasingly difficult.

According to WWF, elephants like her once roamed much of Asia, but at the moment are restricted to lower than one-fifth of their original range.

The organization says their numbers in the wild have fallen by about half because the early twentieth century, with only 40,000-50,000 individuals left.

In the Nam Poui National Conservation Area, researchers are currently traversing rugged hills and forests, collecting DNA from fecal samples of the 50-60 wild elephants that remain in the realm.

WWF-Laos, which is collaborating with ECC and the Smithsonian Institution on the project, said DNA evaluation of the scat would enable scientists to discover individual elephants, determine their sex, track their movements and understand family relationships inside herds.

“Although Nam Poui NPA provides important habitat for one of the few large populations of wild elephants remaining in Laos, we lack accurate data on its composition,” WWF-Laos said in a press release to AFP.

In 2018, a government ban on illegal logging – an industry that uses elephants to remove timber from forests – resulted in animals being sent to work in the tourism sector and others being sold to zoos, circuses and breeders.

The ECC tries to buy and shelter elephants put up on the market in captivity, but since 2010 there have been just six pregnancies with three calves.

Phitsamone told AFP that lots of the elephants at the middle are elderly and in poor condition after years of labor.

Mae Khoun Nung herself is 45 years old. At the sting of the reservoir, near the elephant hospital, he stops on the water’s edge.

The small herd dives below the surface and uses its trunk to spray its back, but she grew up isolated from other elephants and had difficulty socializing.

Bathing is something she prefers to do alone.

Instead, he turns to the pile of bananas left for the herd and munches on the snack.

Phitsamone has been working on the elephant center for greater than a decade and is under no illusions about how difficult it would be to save his country’s gentle giants.

“If we compare Laos with other countries, the number of elephants in the database is small and decreasing,” he said.

“I don’t know if it will be good in 20 or 30 years – who knows.”