Hey everybody, it’s Maddie Sofia
from NPR and Joe’s Big Idea,
and we are here at the Smithsonian Conservation
Biology Institute
finding out what it takes
to save the maned wolf.
Known for the characteristic mane on their necks,
the maned wolf of South America is nearly endangered.
This is Dr. Nucharin Songsasen.
She’s an expert in the reproductive biology
of maned wolves here in Front Royal, Va.
Maddie: What’s the deal with maned wolves?
Nuch: Oh, my God, they are so cool!
You know we call them fox on stilts.
Maddie: Fox on stilts!
Nuch: People call them wolves,
but they're not really wolves.
When you’re looking at the canid family
they’re a very unique species.
We estimate there’s about 20,000 of them left,
mostly living in the grassland habitat in Brazil.
But the reason that we need to
start paying attention to this guy now
is because their habitat is gone.
Eighty percent of these grassland
already disappeared.
Maddie: Wow.
Nuch: And only 5 percent of those natural habitat
that’s remaining is protected.
Maddie: That’s where Nuch comes in.
She’s breeding an insurance, or backup population
of maned wolves that can be reintroduced
to their natural habitat if the wild populations die off.
Maddie: What is your favorite thing
about the maned wolf?
Nuch: Ha-ha-ha, the smell.
Maddie: For our viewers at home,
it is not a good smell.
Nuch: It is a good smell.
Maddie: It smells like skunks.
Nuch: Well a little bit.
Maddie: When you were growing up,
did you think you were going to be a scientist?
Nuch: I grew up in Bangkok, Thailand.
When I was a little girl I want to be a veterinarian,
‘cause my father also a veterinarian.
So I want to save animals;
I want to work with animals.
Then when I went to vet school,
I said, “Oh, I want to be a scientist, too.”
Merging the two worlds that I love.
Maddie: You want a meatball?
Fish?
You want a grape?
What do you want?
So I just launch it in her direction?
OK, varsity softball.
Maddie: So Nuch,
Nuch: Yes.
Maddie: This is where the reproductive magic happens.
This is your lab.
Nuch: Yes, this is the place.
This is the place, yes.
Maddie: Have you developed wolf Tinder?
What’s going on?
Nuch: For the matchmaking aspect,
so what we have is we have a list of male wolves and
female wolves that will have their value that’s attached
to them based on their genetics.
Maddie: They have a value?
Nuch: Yeah.
Maddie: These values are based on how
genetically different,
or unrelated, the wolf is to other wolves.
The less related they are, the better.
That’s because genetic diversity in a population
helps a species survive.
Remember our buddies Fin and Arvara?
Nuch considered their genetics as well as
their age and health to match them up.
But breeding maned wolves isn’t as easy as
just putting two wolves together.
Nuch: They are seasonal breeders,
meaning that they only breed a certain time of the year
and then one time they only have two to three days
that they will breed a year.
Maddie: Wow.
That makes it hard for you
to help build an insurance population.
Nuch: I know that's why we need to develop
multiple tools that we can use to,
you know, all sorts of situations.
Maddie: Have you tried like playing Boyz II Men softly?
Maybe a bottle of wine?
You add some skunk smell around.
You know, maybe Fin needs a haircut?
You know, you ever thought about that?
That’s why Nuch and her team
are trying to develop new techniques
to help breed maned wolves.
Nuch's lab collaborated with Cornell University
to perform the first successful in vitro fertilization
in domestic dogs.
Nuch even adopted one of the IVF puppies.
Now, they are trying to adapt IVF techniques
for the maned wolf.
But until then, we’ll just have to rely
on the whims of romance.
Adam: Hey Maddie!
Maddie: Oh hey Adam!
Adam: What was the favorite thing that you learned
while making this video?
Maddie: Oh the glitter poop.
Adam: Glitter poop?
Maddie: Yeah, so to determine the digestive health
of all these different wolves,
they put different color glitter in their food bowls.
Adam: Oh, okay.
Maddie: So when they poop it's glittery,
and they're like oh Fin has blue poop.
Adam: Okay. Well that's the kind of sparkly fact
that you can learn from Skunk Bear,
NPR's science show
Please subscribe to our channel right here.
Maddie: And you can watch the last episode
of Maddie About Science, right here.