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[Josh Greenman <josh.greenman AT gmail.com>]

http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/collecting-monkey-dung-in-context/?src=twr

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010, 2:30 PM

Collecting Monkey Dung, in Context

By NOAH SNYDER-MACKLER

Science can be pretty dirty.

My colleagues and I are currently studying gelada reproductive
strategies, hormones and genetics. We can best be described as
hunter-gatherers, using every part of our prey. But there’s a
difference: We hunt poop. I guess you could call us professional
pooper-scoopers.

Geladas are an Old World monkey closely related to other baboons, but
they feed almost exclusively on grass, making them the only grazing
primate. Here in the Simien Mountains, one of the few remaining gelada
habitats, we have plenty of grass. Imagine a herd of zebra on the
African savanna. Now replace the savanna with mountains and the zebra
with monkeys. Gelada society is complex, with multiple levels of
association.

One can obtain all sorts of information from poop. What have your
research subjects been eating? Do they have any parasites? How
stressed are they? Is this female cycling, lactating or pregnant? Does
that male have high or low testosterone? Who is this baby’s father?
Are those two females related? To answer each of these questions
requires a different part of the sample — and we use the entire
sample.

My colleagues focus on the hormonal questions: stress and sex. For
this they collect the homogenized center of the fecal sample, which
contains the relatively stable hormonal metabolites.

I study the genetics. For this I collect the outer layer of the feces.
This layer contains skin cells with valuable genetic information.

Collecting poop is our way of doing invasive research without being
invasive. We cannot just collect any sample we see. We need to place
the piece of poop into context. For both genetics and hormones we need
to know the individual who “gave” us the sample. For the hormonal
research we need to know what time of day the sample was collected,
what the male or female’s social status was, what the male or female’s
reproductive state was, and on what day of the month the sample was
collected. So as much fun as it is to say “pooper-scooper,” there is a
lot more science to what we do.

Last year I knew all of the monkeys individually. This year I’m trying
to get to know some of the newer ones. One of the best ways I know of
to get to know the monkeys is to follow them until I get a sample. It
is a very intimate introduction.