VOALearningEnglish2011.10.10---Biologists Flock to Panama to a Century-Old Tropical Research Institute

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VOALearningEnglish2011.10.10---Biologists Flock to Panama to a Century-Old Tropical Research Institute

Biologists Flock to Panama to a Century-Old Tropical Research Institute
Light barely reaches the ground of the dense rain forest on Barro Colorado Island in Panama. In the early morning hours, two researchers are looking for monkeys. Anthropology professor Stephanie Ramirez is an expert on spider monkeys.

STEPHANIE RAMIREZ: "... I'm interested in is how fruit affects their reproductive potential, because spider monkeys mostly consume fruit. And we've noticed that during times when fruit is not abundant or available they can't conceive."

There are only thirty-nine spider monkey on the island. Eight have radio transmitters around their necks.

Stephanie Ramirez and Lauren Mills are using a radio receiver to follow the movement of the animals. But they are not alone. Tony Coates is with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

TONY COATES: "The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute here in Panama is something of a mecca for all biologists in the world who are interested in the tropics and in tropical biology."

The Institute was started there 100 years ago. Abby Bruning came from South Dakota to study ants.

ABBY BRUNING: "We manipulate their diets. So either they will be on a high carbohydrate or a high protein diet and at the end we run analyses to see how well they fight off infection, death rates and things like that."

Bruning studies a single species of ant. High above the ants, pink flowered almendro trees brighten the forest's canopy. Worker ants carry the flowers to their home.

An Azteca ant colony is a big structure that takes more than a year to build. The ants they shelter are the favorite meal of ant eaters.

Scientists say there are about 100 kinds of mammals and nearly as many reptiles on the island.




Tony Coates says tropical areas are a sea of life.

TONY COATES: "The vast majority of all species of plants and animals live in the tropics. The vast majority of all the technical knowhow, political will, education and financing is in the temperate world. How to get those two realms together is one of the great issues facing global conservation."

The headquarters of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is in Panama City. Its library on tropical biology is considered one of the world's best.

TONY COATES: "It follows the same system as the Library of Congress."
In nearby Culebra, a Smithsonian educational center is open to the public.

Thousands of children visit each year.

TONY COATES: "That is our biggest educational contribution to our host country, Panama."

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama is celebrating its hundredth year. It is also launching a new research center in Gamboa.
Private donors want the institute to study subjects of growing concern today. These include how forest's control erosion and capture carbon from the air. They also want to know how to protect this important ecosystem.

生物學家絨面巴拿馬百年熱帶研究所
光勉強達到地面茂密的熱帶雨林在巴拿馬的巴羅科羅拉多島。在清晨時分，兩名研究人員正在尋找猴子。人類學教授斯蒂芬妮拉米雷斯是一個蜘蛛猴的專家。

STEPHANIE RAMIREZ：“... ...我感興趣的是如何水果會影響他們的生殖潛力，因為蜘蛛猴主要是消耗水果在水果是不豐富，或他們無法想像的時候，我們已經注意到，。”

只有三十九個蜘蛛猴在島上。八個在他們的脖子周圍的無線電發射機。

斯蒂芬妮拉米雷斯和勞倫米爾斯使用的是一個無線電接收器，按照動物的運動。但他們並不孤單。托尼寇茲是在巴拿馬的史密森熱帶研究所。

托尼科茨：“史密森熱帶研究所在巴拿馬是一個麥加的東西在所有感興趣的是在熱帶和熱帶生物學世界生物學家。”

該研究所開始有100多年以前。艾比B​​runing是從南達科他州的研究螞蟻。

艾比B​​RUNING：“我們處理他們的飲食，因此，他們要么將高碳水化合物或高蛋白質飲食和結束時，我們運行分析，以及他們如何抵禦這樣的感染，死亡率和東西。”

Bruning研究螞蟻品種單一。高高在上的螞蟻，粉紅色的花門德羅樹木照亮森林的樹冠。工蟻花自己的家鄉。

阿茲台克蟻群是一個大的結構，需要一年多的建設。他們住房的螞蟻螞蟻吃最喜愛的餐。

科學家們說，有大約 100種哺乳動物和許多爬行動物在島上的近。




托尼科茨說，熱帶地區生活的海洋。

托尼科茨：“的所有植物和動物物種的絕大多數生活在熱帶地區的所有的技術知識，政治意願，教育和融資的絕大多數在溫帶世界是如何獲得這兩個領域合起來是一個。全球保護面臨的重大問題。“

史密森熱帶研究所的總部設在巴拿馬城。及其對熱帶生物庫被認為是世界上最好的之一。

托尼科茨：“它遵循美國國會圖書館的同一個系統。”
在附近庫萊布拉，史密森教育中心是向公眾開放。

數以千計的兒童參觀每年。

托尼科茨：“這是我們最大的教育貢獻我們的東道國，巴拿馬”。

在巴拿馬的史密森熱帶研究所為慶祝第100個年頭。它也推出一個新的研究中心在甘博亞。
私人捐助者希望研究所的研究日益受到關注的課題的今天。這些措施包括如何控制森林的侵蝕，從空中和碳捕獲。他們也想知道如何保護這一重要的生態系統。