Zoo - Science topic

Hi...

"I m working on controller placement problem in Software defined networking - and I keep finding data sets of network topology in .gml format-

I can read it fine in a text editor- How can convert this into a MATLAB friendly format? I just want an Internet ZOO Topology and I don't know how I would convert it myself-This is link of datasets "http://www.topology-zoo.org/dataset.html"

Kindly Help....

I have been working with ontologies (RDF/OWL) a lot of time, using mostly them as an engineer, because they permitted SPARQL and rules essencially.

It's only recently, this year, that I started to really pay attention to the theoretical grounding of OWL. This lead me to dive into the zoo of many Description Logic and their desirable or undesirable properties.

I think there is some serious issues in the multiplication of work on DL, which are almost never considered under the perspective of actual usefulness, of their ability to describe the specific structures that are at core of many domains (law, clinical science, computer science...).

Quite some of the theoretical work in DL and logic seems to formally study and prove property about language (DL are language) that nobody is speaking or will ever speak. This is quite salient when considering the very little number of working reasoners (which are covering only a small fragment of DL described formally).

It seems to me that, after the incredibly fecund periods that started with Frege, Russel, Tarski, Hilbert, Godel, Carnap... The theoretical work was somewhat considered to be done and less attention was focused on formal language for Domain Description.

On the other hand, questions related to problem solving (planner) became treated only as SAT problem needing optimisation. With almost no reference to first order logic and thus having poor link with DL.

Finally, on the third hand, modal logic, which has clearly deep link with first order logic (the square operator/diamond operator and the existential quantifier/universal quantifier in particular), has been abandoned by computer scientist and become, more or less explicitly, a field of philosophy.

I think this state of affairs isn't satisfying and that there is a work of conceptual clarification and of revision of the foundation of mathematics that would integrate these development.

To that end, something that does seem absolutely essential is to give each other an easy access to reasoners. By easy access, I don't mean a program written in some obscure language whose source must be compiled on a specific linux.

I mean an access to the reasoning service through a (loosely standardized) REST API. These service should be accompanied with websites giving relevant example of using the reaoner, with an "online playground".

I think this could be done for classic DL such as EL or SHOIQ but also for modal logic in it's various kind (epistemic, deontic), and that could also could be done for planification based on First Order Logic.

I'm currently cogitating about the engineering question that would raise from such a logical zoo, and about a grammar that would be usable for every reasoning problem description involving this kind of logic.

If you are interested by the question and/or have skills in modern full stack architecture and Dockerisation, I'd be interested to have your opinion about the current situtation and the feasability of such a logic zoo, which would be an useful tool for clarifying the domain.

National Geographic April 5,2020 article is titled: Tiger tests positive for coronavirus at Bronx Zoo, first known case in the world.

If wild animals, including birds, can be a reservoir hosting COVID-19, that may pose additional hurdles to limiting and containing COVID-19.

Are there reports or studies bearing on this issue?

Do we need to understand zoonotic diseases better to avoid more pandemics in future? Should we all turn vegetarians? Is eating animals the only issue or there are some other human-animal interactions which need to be understood? Will vising the zoos be safe? Or even keeping pet animals?

Please have a logical discussion around these and ask related questions.

When talking to visitors of our museum/zoo, some of the most frequent questions asked are "Why is keeping species from going extinct an activity worthwhile to pursue?" or "Why does it matter if this midge or that tick is going extinct?".

While most biologists will probably reply that species have very specific roles in their ecosystems and thus the extinction of one species can probably affect others, too, or that each species is part of the richness of our nature (a value in itself so to speak), some non-biologists are often not that easily convinced (especially when you refer to species not very attractive to the human eye). What even more hampers an easy answer is that more than 99% of species that ever existed have died out in the course of evolution. So what is all that conservationist effort, to 'preserve the current state' all about? Changes in biodiversity and mass extinctions have always happened, so why don't we let it just happen now (to put it insensibly)? There are also some human related arguments, for example "we breathe air and thus need plants of some sort". But that does not mean I need every plant species on the planet to produce oxygen, crops will do that, too...

I would like to hear your thoughts on this to have some good arguments at hand when dealing with the next inquisitive visitor. ;-)

We've got a workbook to do with SPSS and I understand how to do the tests in SPSS, but I don't know what to do with this data set in order to know what test to do. To me, this has 2 different IV's - the zoo it is in, and whether it had high or low visitor density. One of which is independent, one is paired samples. We have to calculate the descriptive statistics - which ones? We tried the mean, but do we find the mean for the set as a whole, or for each zoo/density. We haven't been taught properly and I have a decent understanding but this is going above me. I will try and attach the actual question and data set.

To investigate if resting behaviour of Lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) was affected by crowd density, researchers observed gorillas in 5 zoological institutions across Europe. For each enclosure, resting behaviour was recorded in randomised 30-minutes sessions under two conditions: high number of visitors and low number of visitors. For each condition, the observations were repeated 3 times. The data collected in these sessions is summarised below:

Table 1. Time (minutes) spent resting in relation to visitor numbers in 5 zoological institutions.

Transfer the above data into excel and perform the following:

a. Import the data into SPSS

b. Determine the independent and dependent variable in the above scenario. You may also be quizzed on what type of data these variables are, and whether the samples are independent.

c. Calculate descriptive statistics . You may be asked to provide one or more descriptive values in the quiz.

d. Determine whether the data is normally distributed or not. You may have to provide p-values, degrees of freedom or test statistics and be asked to interpret the outcome of this test in relation to the null- and alternative hypotheses.

e. According to your interpretation of the normality test you performed, determine which statistical test would be appropriate to run on the visitor density data set.

f. Run the test you have chosen and save the output. You may have to provide p-values or test statistics and be asked to interpret the outcome of this test in relation to the null- and alternative hypotheses.

g. Create a graph that is appropriate for the test you have chosen and save the graph in your output.

h. Consider how you would interpret these results and their wider implications.

I would like to know some methodologies for captive condition of small carnivores in Zoos. … Read more

I want to extract Hop count, link utilization and random placement from Topology zoo data set, and I have no idea how to do that. additionally, i'm going to use that criteria for SDN controller placement problems in matlab.

Dear Colleagues,

Please see the following link and information for more details. If you are thinking about submitting, please feel free to reach out to me directly here or at edjfern@gmail.com.

The modern field of Applied Animal Behavior has brought about two major advances in the behavioral welfare of animals: (1) The use of environmental/behavioral enrichment, and (2) the implementation of voluntary training procedures to improve human-animal interactions. Both these practices have their roots in behavior analysis and learning theory. However, few studies have examined the learning effects observed in the application of these practices. For instance, most implementations of operant conditioning to the training of animals is done without measurement of the learning process. Likewise, the effects of enrichment, while originally proposed as a form of behavioral engineering to modify learned behavior, is almost exclusively measured in terms of its pre- vs. post-enrichment effect. Both modern advances thus miss a significant result of their implementation: How behavior is shaped by these environmental manipulations.

The following special issue looks to address how learning theory has been applied and measured to address the welfare of animals. Original manuscripts that examine any aspect of how learning theory has been applied to improve the lives of animals, from studies of behavioral training procedures to the modification of behavior as a result of some environmental change, are welcome submissions. Specific interest will be given to papers that use within-subject methodology to measure changes in behavior over time, as well as papers that address how behavior analysis has served the welfare of animals and can better contribute to the field.

Dr. Eduardo J. Fernandez Ms. Sabrina Brando Guest Editors

Hello, I am seeking any advice on how to analyze my ethogram data. I have trouble with stats, so anything would be useful!

As part of my interdisciplinary project on the welfare of primates in sanctuaries in Costa Rica, I have 35.4 hours of observational data of capuchins (Cebus capucinus) from my field season this summer across 3 sanctuaries. This is only my first field season, I will be returning for more hours of data collection!

My hypotheses are that:

(1) tourist presence is a potential source of stress for captive caps.

(2) tourist presence has less of an effect on cap behaviour when the enclosure is more enriched.

My predictions are that:

(1) caps perform vigilance, territorial and aggressive behaviours in relation to tourist presence.

(2) caps in more enriched enclosures (more space per individual, places for privacy, complex structures, etc.) perform less vigilance, territorial and aggressive behaviours when tourists are present.

Each sanctuary differed in enclosure size and enrichments, as well as frequency of guided tours and number of tourists.

Sanctuary 1 (n=5): 15 sessions X 60 min =15 hours observation

Sanctuary 2 (n=3): 9 sessions X 72 min = 10.8 hours observation

Sanctuary 3 (n=3): 8 sessions X 72 min = 9.6 hours observation

Total = 35.4 hours

n = capuchin individuals.

I used both focal follow and group scan methods:

-Focal follows of 6 minutes alternating per monkey.

-3 group scans beginning, middle, and end of session (approx. 30 min apart).

I made notes (all-occurrence style) of when a tour group approached the enclosure and when they left.

I made all-occurrence observations of when capuchins did territorial noise-making (bang tail, throw rocks, bang items in enclosure, etc.).

I can say, anecdotally, I noticed that in the least enriched enclosure (Sanctuary 1), capuchins performed the most territorial and vigilance behaviour. This sanctuary has the most capuchins, the smallest enclosure, and the most tourist activity. Sanctuary 2 had the least tourism activity and the most enriched enclosure (lots of areas for privacy, located at edge of jungle, etc.) and I saw the least territorial and vigilance behaviour performed there. Sanctuary 3 was somewhat in the middle of both, so right now Sanctuary 1,2, and 3 feels like they are on a bit of a spectrum.

How do I demonstrate that tourist presence is correlated with caps' vigilance and territorial behaviour? I imagine creating a graph that looks like a time line of the observational session, with time stamps for when tourists approached and left the enclosure. In my mind, there would be a line tracking vigilance, aggression, and territoriality which would spike during the in-between section of the timeline during tourist presence (which I think of as sort-of like applying a treatment to the capuchin group).

I am wondering if this would be a good way to illustrate the effect of tourist presence, and if so, how to go about making this graph such as in Excel or R Studio.

As well, my understanding is that the individuals housed together are not independent variables because they influence each other’s behaviour. Does this mean that I would combine all their individual data for vigilance, territoriality, etc., when I noticed it was typically the alphas and usually one other individual who performed most of these behaviours?

I used Zoo Monitor to record observations. For behaviour tail-banging behaviour ("drum"), I was able to generate these graphs using the app where the y-axis is Rate (occurrence/min per session) of tail-banging, and the x-axis has dates of observation.

Here's a question that extends beyond applied animal behavior researchers, with hopefully a few researchers or even librarians with expertise in massive article searches that might be able to provide some help. The basics are this: We started a meta-analysis of enrichment about a decade ago:

The idea was to extend the three enrichment meta-analyses that looked at what effect enrichment had on stereotypic behavior in zoo animals (Shyne, 2006; Swaisgood & Shepherdson, 2005; Swaisgood & Shepherdson, 2006) to more than just stereotypies and in more settings than zoos. We were looking at the effects of enrichment on all different behaviors (e.g., foraging, inactivity, social) as well as across numerous species and in zoos, shelters, farms, stables, labs, etc. At the start of this project (2010), we managed to find 12,000 articles that were limited to 150 papers mainly by using the Google Scholar "OR" function (i.e., enrichment OR stereotypy OR welfare OR behavior...), and then limiting it to (a) peer-reviewed publications that (b) did some type of enrichment to baseline independent variable manipulation, and (c) measured at least one type of behavioral effect.

The difficulty we have run into is this: Google Scholar only allows any query to produce 1000 searches. And there have been a lot more studies done since 2010, with anywhere from 23,000 to 50k+, depending on how we exclude terms. We can search by year for each, but that is less effective. And, we could include other search engines, like Web of Science, to produce more accurate results. I just feel like we're going about this in a less optimal way if we start limiting searches by year. So that is essentially it:

What is the most optimal way to produce a large meta-analytic search on peer-reviewed publications that have examined the effects of environmental/behavioral enrichment on (a) any kind of behavior (b) in any setting?

It has to be at least partially experimental since we require a non-enriched baseline measure for comparison. Other than that, we would like to find all the papers we can, probably in the range of 250 - 500, and then start doing our meta-analysis on what those papers have to say about enrichment used with different species/taxa, different types of enrichment, different settings, and so on. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

References:

Shyne (2006). Meta‐analytic review of the effects of enrichment on stereotypic behavior in zoo mammals. Zoo Biol, 25(4), 317-337.

Swaisgood, R. R., & Shepherdson, D. J. (2005). Scientific approaches to enrichment and stereotypies in zoo animals: what's been done and where should we go next?. Zoo Biol, 24(6), 499-518.

Swaisgood, R., & Shepherdson, D. (2006). Environmental enrichment as a strategy for mitigating stereotypies in zoo animals: a literature review and meta-analysis. Stereotypic Animal Behaviour: Fundamentals and Applications to Welfare. CABI, 256-285.

Starting in March, I will be working on a behavioural study concerning two elderly female Asian Elephants in a zoo enclosure. My research question is to study their behaviour and to decrease the stereotypic behaviour that they show. Because I am still in the preface, I wish to dig as deep in other publications as possible. What are publications I should definitely read? Not just on elephant behaviour, but also on the methods of behavioural studies - since I have not done this for a longer time, so there might be a good article on that as well. Thanks in advance!

Does anyone have any experience on how to set standards and manage responses and action on escaped birds from zoos? We found a greater flamingo at Schinias-National Park near Athens and it may belong to two escaped individuals from Attika Zoological Park (it is ringed, "LCA", see photo). Any replies on this specific case or general protocol elsewhere would be much appreciated.

I am going to do some basic research on biodiversity, and looking for what species are there available at zoo/conservation. Are there any sources available for species census conducted in the zoo?

Thank You

For the 2019 American Society of Animal Sciences Meeting we are proposing a Symposium on "Sustainability of Meat and Fish Ingredients" it will be housed in the Companion Animal Program, however, it has a Comparative Nutrition focus (i.e., talks from other fields are acceptable - human, livestock, zoo housed-exotics).

We would love some suggestions from the wider field for consideration!

The following topics have been proposed:

I thought it might be nice to add recent references to this project (Wellness and Animal Welfare), since one of the goals seems to be increasing general knowledge of animal wellness/well-being. I'd be happy to include some of my own, as well as other recent references from zoo researchers and the like.

If we were to add references, what's the best way to go about adding them here? You can add files directly to questions/answers, and that's at least partially helpful. Any better ways to add suggestions?

Hi everybody,

I am looking for papers treating the relationships between the (paleo) climatic-oceanographic perturbations and the morphological adaptation of marine (phyto-/zoo-) plankton. Any suggestions are welcome!

Thanks in advance.

Luca

Hi! I am struggling with the analysis of my data and could use some help.. I am looking at the effect of castration on the development of social behaviour in gorillas. I have observed 11 males, of which 4 are castrated and 7 intact. I have observed them for four years and for every male thus four data points: 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. I would like to compare the development over the years of castrated and intact males, but also take into the account the possible effect of age and zoo (as the males live in different zoos).

So far I figured I would do a repeated measures ANOVA, using the following code:

lme_aggression = lme(Aggression ~ Group + Age + Zoo, data=aggressionlong, random = ~1|Focal)

anova(lme_aggression)

summary(lme_aggression)

I really do not know that much of statistics, so I am wondering if this is correct?

If it is, the next problem is that the assumption of normality of residuals cannot be met for a lot of behaviours and using the Friedman test as an alternative for the ANOVA is not working in R...

I appreciate your help!!

Thank you.

I am currently doing research about environmental enrichment for crocodilians for an internship, but I'm having trouble finding information about this theme.

Does anyone know of any studies or research to suggest?

I am studying 6 behaviours in 2 separate groups of zebras in a zoo, and comparing them. I want to compare how long the 2 groups (as a unit) spend showing each behaviour. I will be observing them for 5 weeks and by the end should have a table like this -

Avg Duration (mins)

forage

rest

social

vigilance

move

other

I'm not interested in within-group comparisons (e.g. Gp 1 forage compared to social), but I am interested in between-group comparisons. However not only would i want to compare foraging between the 2 gps, resting between the 2 gps and so on, but i would also want to compare e.g. gp1 forage with say gp 2 social - between categories of behaviours between the 2 groups.

Now I was thinking ANOVA is partly about whether 1/more variables of various levels have a effect on another variable, but the only variables i have will be time and behaviour. I don't especially think one will have a dircect effect on the other - it's purely just observational. So would I have to do multiple t-tests, since I'd only be looking for differences between 2 means at a time?

Cheers!!!

As part of my Bsc Zoo Biology course I am required to interview/ ask questions to people in my desired career to ascertain information surrounding the field. If anybody working as a zoo keeper or particularly in reptile conservation would you mind answering a few questions for me?

Thanks in advance - Louis Pereira

I am currently looking into the behaviour of Hartmann's Zebra in a Zoo environment and am wanting to record my findings. Can anyone recommend a video camera or software package that may be suitable. I have been leant a digital video camera but the quality is poor making differentiating the stripe of the zebra difficult at any sort of distance.

In Coupled line or in hairpin Band pass filter, how to keep line width of the resonator based on the value of Zoe and Zoo?

I mean what is use Zoe and Zoe. Do we have to take sqrt(Zoe*Zoo) and find Z and then from that we have to take W?

Dear researchers,

We're planning to begin a zoo project comparing animal behaviour when being observed, compared to camera footage. I don't suppose anyone could recommend good types of video camera for zoo recording? Most importantly, the camera would need to have a long battery life and be able to record for 3+ hours at any given time, but also have a relatively wide lens - and be fairly inconspicuous. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Hello all,

I am wondering if there is any simple way to isolate intact (medium or high quality) total RNA from selected zoo animals. What is the best material for this? Fresh saliva, droppings, hair or something other? I am interested in some tumor supressor gene, which is probably low expressed.

My laboratory workflow:

sampling material -> conservation in RNALater -> RNA isolation -> reverse transcription into cDNA -> PCR -> sequencing PCR amplicon

Invasive sampling of whole blood or tissue is not possible due to many formalities and legislative obstruction.

Has anybody experiences with it? What is the best material and method for animal non-invasive intact RNA isolation?

Thank you very much for answers :-)

Informal learning was once constrained to places like libraries and museums. At one point in time zoos stood little chance of getting grants focused on informal learning. As STEM has risen in prominence I am wondering how informal STEM learning may or may not have changed the definition of informal learning. Where can it take place? Can it happen in schools and if so, under what conditions would it be considered informal, and finally are zoo, businesses, labs, and universities participating as locations for informal STEM learning and under what conditions? What operational definition are you using to include these former bastions of formal education only.

Im search to any one in Denmark exactly in Copenhagen and Netherlands wagenigen university that work on lighting and their effects on plants metabolism how I can find that?

I am wondering if it is possible to re-introduce big cats to the wild if they have been born in captivity, particularly when born in (European) zoos.

Is there any methods to reduce the abnormal behaviour of most bear in captivity instead of introduction of enrichment tools method?

Hi, my name is Ivan...

I need to know what the abnormal behavior or stereotype is called by a family group of gorillas I'm studying at a zoo.

Both the alpha male and one of the females, somewhat older, eat the mucus very often, whether they are somewhat cooled or in good health.

-What is the name of eating the snot?

- Is it considered abnormal behavior or stereotypy if it is very often, the frequency?

For example, eating bowel movements, is said coprophagia, then ... eat snot?

Thank you very much for everything.

I was unsure as to whether you were trying to improve captive breeding program practices merely to increase their success rate and produce more individuals to be re-release, OR if you were trying to study the effects of captive breeding practices on the reproductive success rate of re-released populations.

One of my undergraduate majors was Zoo Science, so I find your topic interesting, and look forward to seeing the results.

I am currently employed in a small zoo, and we house cotton-top tamarins Oedipus sanguinius in an indoor enclosure.  We have installed a large UVB fluorescent tube array to provide for their UVB requirements but I think it may be inadequate.  UVB penetration from artificial light sources into animal enclosures is generally pretty poor, with the further you move away from the light, the less UVB is detected. I am just wondering if there is any information or research out there that discusses mammals' ability to self-regulate UVB intake (i.e. would the tamarins move closer to the light on there own for the primary reason of UVB intake) or would we need to design the enclosure furnishings to basically 'force' the primates to get close to the light?

I would like to know if there is a link or website where you can see all photos and behaviors-personality of all lowland gorillas who are captive in zoos, nature parks, bio-parks, etc., across Europe.

I want to do a study of personality as physical, but I need photos and data from a database behavior of them all.

Do you know if there is such a database on the web? And if not, it would be nice to create a demand for new scientific ..

Thanks for your help.

Ivan,

Master Primatology

Barcelone

There are minor barriers that hinder adults who are disabled from participating in family events such as going to the zoo or museum. How would I find the data about these barriers? 

I am currently researching on the Savu Python (Liasis macklotti savunesis) and its ex-situ and in-situ programmes for my Dissertation of BSc of Zoo Management at Reaseheath College (Partnered by Chester University) in the United Kingdom come September 2016. I am looking for research on its behaviours, diet and feeding, possible enclosure utilisation or adaptations to environments. Any of scientific areas are welcome.  The attached file is part of my initial research.

Your support is greatly appreciated.  

Is there any water quality standards for animal drinking? My point is on captive animals at Zoo. If you think it as an absurd then comment here why? Do animals also need the one so? Do they also need to enjoy pathogen free /pollution free water? 

Greetings

Anila Ajayan

The elephants are known to take warm waters of the lake up in their nose, it is possible that like humans it sometime goes up higher to cause PAM? Aggression followed by deaths have been reported in zoos, could it be due to PAM? 

Sometimes in zoos we can see diferents species living too close. We want to know how this forced proximity affect.

Captured animals are more susceptible to diseases than an animal in wild. I am trying to isolate microbes from a water body inside a zoo. This water may cause more health risks to zoo animals. Please provide the details of microbes if anybody know so that I can go selectively to culture them.

Thanks in advance!

So UV lighting is seen as essential to a lot of captive lizards species, though there is still much debate as to whether it is beneficial to captive snake species as well. It is not viewed as a necessity in captive snake species, but I was wondering whether any research had been carried out as to possible benefits of providing UV in captivity. Thanks in advance.

I am doing an essay on the feeding and nutrition of captive chameleons (in zoos amongst other wildlife institutions), and was wondering if much research has been carried out on specific nutrients, vitamins and minerals which are important to chameleons found in zoos. I've discussed the diets they are typically on, and compared those to wild diets, but have found less information on the nutrition aspect. Any comment would be greatly appreciated.

We have problems on our Bongo, Tragelaphus eurycerus, in which some individuals seem slender even we serve them sufficient leaves and pallets. If there Bongo keepers offer me the daily diet list of this animal? It will be helpful to compare the detailed contents for the nutrition issue on our Bongo. Many thanks.

I am looking at environmental enrichment on captive chimpanzees by evaluating enrichment devices being used in UK zoos. I was wondering if anybody could help me outline some of the ways manipulable environmental enrichment can encourage natural behaviour in chimpanzees and possibly the potential limitations of manipulable environmental enrichment devices.

I'm looking for some discussion on definitional and practical differences (if any) between these two terms. I've always considered therm relatively synonymous and used them so. In the literature from different fields I've seen them used both synonymously and/or selectively/preferentially (i.e., only one term, e.g., lab animal wellbeing vs. zoo animal welfare). In an admittedly short Google search I've not found any literature defining them as the same or different (and how/why). The only implied difference that I've even found was on the AMVA website - they seem to use welfare to refer to the animals holistic state of living/"being" and use wellbeing to refer to individual components that make up welfare (e.g., physical health/wellbeing, psychological wellbeing). Any help, comments, links, or references to literature are appreciated.

Looking at multiple factors of urban sprawl, the human race's exponential growth and how the built environment continues to consume natural habitat, how will the role of Zoo's, Aquariums and Natural Wildlife Parks change in the future? More to the point, how can good, sustainable and conscientious design contribute to the innovation as these amenities shift from a predominant entertainment facility to an educational and conservational role? Thoughts?

Im doing genetic mapping studies, to compare conservation of genome arrangement across the animal kingdom. I need suggestions for animals that can be easily (relatively) cultured in the lab. Critera include: must be able to reproduce with just one set of parents; number of offspring at least 12 (50-100 would be ideal). We have already done this (or had collaborations) with things such as brine shrimp, sea urchins, hydra, and earthworms. Alternatively, they could be caught in the wild (as a brood or egg pouch). Please let me know if you have any suggestions, or have some animals in culture that youd be willing to collaborate with us on. For our part, we will do some high throughput sequencing, get a draft genome you can use, and do the genetic mapping. So far we have about a dozen animals we have been able to do this for, but wed like to expand our database by as much as possible. the bottleneck is the data analysis. There is not a lot of good genetic mapping data out there for the wide range of animals wed like to compare, so we are trying to establish that data ourselves. Weve got a good high throughput and data analysis pipeline to take advantage of, we just need to get our hands on more animals. Under represented phyla would be great. Also, those animals whose genetic map has already been constructed would be redundant, such as Drosophila, although having some reference genome for an organism would always be helpful, but we are prepared to work with non-model organisms.

Thanks, look forward to receiving input and possibly collaborating.