San Francisco Zoo DNA Bank

The Zoo maintains a bank with hair, feather or other tissue samples from many of our species. We collect these opportunistically when an animal is having a routine physical or being seen in the Zoo hospital for some other reason. These samples can be used to extract DNA for many types of studies. With access to DNA, scientists can answer all sorts of questions about individuals or groups of animals. Some of these studies are directly applicable to captive management.

For example, we can find out which of several males is the father of an individual, which is essential for our studbooks and captive breeding programs. We can determine how genetically variable our animals are, an important measure of success in maintaining captive populations. We can also work out whether animals of the same species are different enough to be split into subspecies, which helps curators decide whether to interbreed them in zoos. We can also determine the geographic origin of our animals, which can help to reconstruct their natural history.

Samples from our DNA bank can also be used to compare two populations of the same species to determine how long ago they became separated, or whether individuals are able to move between the two groups. This can help to document the fragmentation of habitats, in which areas, and groups of animals, are partitioned by roads or areas of deforestation.

By comparing museum specimens with living animals, conservationists can study changes in genetic diversity which occurred in the last few hundred years. When animal artifacts are smuggled, forensic scientists might compare them to some of our animals of known origin, to establish the location from which the animals were poached. The materials in the DNA bank are available to scientists undertaking a variety of studies.