Description
The California Condor recovery effort stands as one of the most remarkable conservation success stories in modern wildlife management. Launched in the early 1980s, the captive breeding program brought the species back from the brink of extinction, and continues to play a critical role in sustaining wild populations today.
Central to any successful breeding program is a thorough understanding of each animal’s biology, including sex determination. California Condor chicks are monomorphic, meaning males and females are visually indistinguishable, making DNA analysis an essential tool for wildlife managers and researchers.
This supplemental reagent pack provides the material to run male and female bird DNA fragments by gel electrophoresis to support programs with existing curricula, or teachers looking for a hands-on lab to go along with their own that covers bird sexing scenarios– it does not include a background, scenario, or questions.
Materials include:
- Two Ready-to-load DNA samples (ZW and ZZ), enough to run 30 male and 30 female samples
- Ten 2% agarose GreenGel™ GelCups
- One bottle of 100 mL Tris-Acetate-EDTA (TAE) buffer concentrate, enough to make 2L of 1X running buffer
- One bag of 2 – 200 µL micropipette tips
- One bag of 0.65 mL microcentrifuge tubes
