Zoodactics 2014: Elephant Hippocampi, Gorilla Speciation and Bee Extinction

Dr. Kelly Botteron, our fellows (minus one on maternity leave) and I are at the Zoo for our 2014 Zoodactics.

It is a perfectly bucolic day: blue skies, blooming trees, chirping birds, open ice cream stands... and my fellows are giddy.

I mock-focus them on our educational endeavor by pointing to the first animal on our path and asking for the mental status exam (on a cute prairie dog seemingly on the verge of a nap.) Ji Su does not miss a beat: "He has limited eye contact..."

Today, Dr. Botteron's smart phone is much more efficient than my encyclopedia of animal behavior, especially since I am missing volume 1 which has all the good stuff: dominance, aggression, emotions etc....

Senior WU Child Psychiatry Fellows, St. Louis Zoo

We make our way through the vast and lovely St. Louis Zoo, expertly guided by Jim Harper, one of our fellows and the father of young children, who confesses that the Zoo is a second home.

We are disappointed that Priya, the elephant born last year is not roaming around but quickly forget about her as we discuss elephants' legendary memories. Dr. Botteron quickly digs up an MRI study of elephant brains (we postulate either a giant MRI scanner or that the brains were no longer attached to their elephants) and indeed....Elephants have particularly complex hippocampi and large temporal lobes. They also have a relatively thin corpus callosum. We try to imagine what that means behaviorally.  Are they bad multi-taskers?

After Rohit makes an initial observation, we spend a bit of time pondering the relationship of hypoactivity to longevity (though we also encounter a tamarin species that is typically hypoactive because of limited caloric availability in their natural habitats.)

None of us understands a priori why there are several gorilla species but only dog breeds, not species.. or how this was arbitrarily decided after genomic analysis as heralded by a zoo sign with educational aspirations:"The DNA gave it away!!"

We finish at the insectarium, where Chad describes his undergraduate research on bees and explains the dances that they use to communicate the precise location of food sources to other members of the hive.

About bees...They pollinate 80 per cent of the world's flowering plants and are on the verge of extinction because of pesticide use.

Yes, at the Zoo we also learn that humans remain arguably the most perplexing of all animals.

Till Later,

Anne